Jhereg Vlad Taltos, Book 1 Written by Steven Brust Narrated By Bernard Setaro Clark

[Music] this audio program is presented by audible.com audible audio that speaks to you wherever you are audible frontiers presents gereg written by steven brust narrated by bernard sotero clark the cycle phoenix sinks into decay haughty dragon yearns to slay lyorn growls and lowers horn tiasa dreams and plots are born hawk looks down from lofty flight sir stalks and blends with night isola strikes from courtly bow maintains though none knows how valista rends and then rebuilds jereg feeds on others kills quiet i o rich won't forget sly criatha weaves his net yendi coils and strikes unseen orca circles hard and lean frightened tecla hides in grass jagala shifts as moments pass athyro rules minds interplay phoenix rises from ash's gray gereg let the winds of jungle's night stay the hunter in her flight evening's breath to which is mind let our fates be intertwined jereg do not pass me by show me where thine egg doth lie prologue there is a similarity if i may be permitted an excursion into tenuous metaphor between the feel of a chilly breeze and the feel of a knife's blade as either is laid across the back of the neck i can call up memories of both if i work at it the chili breeze is invariably going to be the more pleasant memory for instance i was 11 years old and clearing tables in my father's restaurant it was a quiet evening with only a couple of tables occupied a group had just left and i was walking over to the table they'd used the table in the corner was a deuce one male one female both dragaran of course for some reason humans rarely came into our place perhaps because we were human too and they didn't want the stigma or something my father himself always avoided doing business with other easterners there were three at the table along the far wall all of them were male and dragaran i noted that there was no tip at the table i was clearing and heard a gasp from behind me i turned as one member of the threesome let his head fall into his plate of lyon leg with red peppers my father had let me make the sauce for it that time and crazily my first thought was to wonder if i'd built it wrong the other two stood up smoothly seemingly not the least bit worried about their friend they began moving toward the door and i realized that they were planning to leave without paying i looked for my father but he was in back i glanced once more at the table wondering whether i should try to help the fellow who was choking or intercept the two who were trying to walk out on their bill then i saw the blood the hilt of a dagger was protruding from the throat of the fellow whose face was lying in his plate it slowly dawned on me what had happened and i decided that no i wasn't going to ask the two gentlemen who were leaving for money they didn't run or even hurry they walked quickly and quietly passed me toward the door i didn't move i don't think i was even breathing i remember suddenly becoming very much aware of my own heartbeat one set of footsteps stopped directly behind me i remained frozen while in my mind i cried out to vera the demon goddess at that moment something cold and hard touched the back of my neck i was too frozen to flinch i would have closed my eyes if i could have instead i stared straight ahead i wasn't consciously aware of it at the time but the dragaran girl was looking at me and she started to rise then i noticed her when her companion reached out a hand to stop her which she brushed off then i heard a soft almost silky voice in my ear you didn't see a thing it said got that if i had had as much experience then as i do now i would have known that i was in no real danger if he'd had any intention of killing me he would have done so already but i didn't and so i shook i felt i should nod but couldn't manage the dragaran girl was almost up to us now and i imagine the guy behind me noticed her because the blade was gone suddenly and i heard retreating footsteps i was shaking uncontrollably the tall dragon girl gently placed her hand on my shoulder i saw sympathy on her face it was a look i had never before been given from under garen and it was in its own way as frightening as the experience i'd just been through i had an urge to fall forward into her arms but i didn't let myself i became aware that she was speaking softly gently it's all right they've left nothing is going to happen just take it easy you'll be fine my father came storming in from the other room vlad he called what's going on around here why he stopped he saw the body i heard him getting sick and i felt ashamed for him the hand on my shoulder tightened then i felt myself stop trembling and looked at the girl in front of me girl i really couldn't judge her age at all but being dragaran she could be anywhere from a hundred to a thousand years old her clothing was black and gray which i knew meant she was of house gereg her companion who was now approaching us was also a gereg the three who had been at the other table were of the same house nothing of any significance there it was mostly gereg or an occasional tecla who came into our restaurant her companion stood behind her your name is vlad she asked me i nodded i'm kyra she said i only nodded again she smiled once more and turned to her companion they paid their bill and left i went back to help clean up after the murdered man and my father kyrah i thought to myself i won't forget you when the phoenix guards arrived some time later i was in back and i heard my father telling them that no no one had seen what had happened we'd all been in back but i never forgot the feel of a knife blade as it is laid across the back of the neck and for another instance i was sixteen and walking alone through the jungles west of adrilanka the city was somewhat more than a hundred miles away and it was night i was enjoying the feeling of solitude and even the slight fear within my middle as i considered the possibility that i might run into a wild sir or a lyon or even vera preserve me a dragon the ground under my boots alternated between crunch and squish i didn't make any effort to move quietly i hoped that the noise i made would frighten off any beast which would otherwise frighten me off the logic of that escapes me now i looked up but there was no break in the overcast that blankets the dragaran empire my grandfather had told me that there was no such orange red sky above his eastern homeland he'd said that one could see stars at night and i had seen them through his eyes he could open his mind to me and did often it was part of his method for teaching witchcraft a method that brought me at age 16 to the jungles the sky lit the jungle enough for me to pick my way i ignored the scratches on my face and arms from the foliage slowly my stomach settled down from the nausea that had hit when i had done the teleport that brought me here there was a good touch of irony there too i realized using a dragaran sorcery to bring me to where i could take the next step in learning witchcraft i hitched the pack on my back and stepped into a clearing this one looked like it might do i decided there were heavy grasses for perhaps 40 feet in what was very roughly a circle i walked around it slowly and carefully my eyes straining to pick out details all i needed now was to stumble into a cree author's net but it was empty my clearing i went to the middle of it and set my pack down i dug out a small black brazier a bag of coals a single black candle a stick of incense a dead tecla and a few dried leaves the leaves were from the gorinth plant which is sacred to certain religions back east i carefully crumbled the leaves into a coarse powder then i walked the perimeter of the clearing and sprinkled it before me as i went i returned to the middle i sat there for a time and went through the ritual of relaxing each muscle of my body until i was almost in a trance with my body relaxed my mind had no choice but to follow when i was ready i placed the coals in the brazier slowly one at a time i held each one for a moment feeling its shape and texture letting the soot rub off on my palms with witchcraft everything can be a ritual even before the actual enchantment begins the preparations should be made properly of course one can always just cast one's mind out concentrating on the desired result and hope the odds of success that way aren't very good somehow when done the right way witchcraft is so much more satisfying than sorcery when the coals were in the brazier and placed just so i put the incense among them taking the candle i stared long and hard at the wick willing it to burn i could certainly have used a flint or even sorcery to start it but doing it this way helped put me into the proper frame of mind i guess the mood of the jungle night was conducive to witchcraft it was only a few minutes before i saw smoke rising from the candle followed quickly by a small flame i was also pleased that i felt no trace of the mental exhaustion that accompanies the completion of a major spell there had been a time not so long before when the lighting of a candle would have left me too weak even for psionic communication i'm learning grandfather i used the candle then to start the coals burning and laid my will upon it to get a good fire going when it was burning well i planted the candle in the ground the scent of the incense pleasantly sweet reached my nostrils i closed my eyes the circle of crushed goringth leaves would prevent any stray animals from wandering by and disturbing me i waited after a time i don't know how long i opened my eyes again the coals were glowing softly the scent of the incense filled the air the sounds of the jungle did not penetrate past the boundaries of the clearing i was ready i stared deep into the coals and timing my breathing i spoke the chant very slowly as i had been taunt as i said each word i cast it sending it out into the jungle as far and as clearly as i could it was an old spell my grandfather had said and had been used in the east for thousands of years unchanged i agonized over each word each syllable exploring it letting my tongue and mouth linger over and taste each of the sounds and willing my brain to full understanding of each of the thoughts i was sending as each word left me it was imprinted on my consciousness and seemed to be a living thing itself the last sounds died out very slowly in the jungle night taking a piece of me with them now indeed i felt exhausted as always when doing a spell of this power i had to guard myself against falling into a deep trance i breathed evenly and deeply as if sleepwalking i picked up the dead tecla and moved it to the edge of the clearing where i could see it when i was sitting then i waited i believe it was only a few minutes later that i heard the flapping of wings near me i opened my eyes and saw a girag at the edge of the clearing near the dead tecla looking at me we watched each other for a while and then it tentatively moved up and took a small bite from my offering it was of average size if female a bit large if male if my spell had worked it would be female its wingspan was about the distance from my shoulder to my wrist and it was a bit less than that from its snake-like head to the tip of its tail the forked tongue flicked out over the rodent tasting each piece before ripping off a small chunk chewing and swallowing it ate very slowly watching me watching it when i saw that it was nearly done i began to compose my mind for psionic contact and to hope soon it came i felt a small questing thought within me i allowed it to grow it became distinct what is it you want i heard with surprising clarity now came the real test if this chereg had come as a result of my spell it would be female with a nest of eggs and what i was about to suggest wouldn't send it into an attack rage if it was just a gereg who was passing by and saw some carry and lying free for the taking i could be in trouble i had with me a few herbs which might prevent me from dying of the gereg's poison but then again they might not mother i thought back to it as clearly as i could i would like one of your eggs it didn't attack me and i picked up no feeling of puzzlement or outrage at the suggestion good my spell had brought her and she would be at least receptive to bargaining i felt excitement growing in me and forced it down i concentrated on the gereg before me this part was almost a ritual in itself but not quite it all depended on what the gereg thought of me what she asked do you offer it i offer it long life i answered and fresh red meat without struggle and i offer it my friendship the animal considered this for a while then said and what will you ask of it i will ask for aid in my endeavors such as are in its power i will ask for its wisdom and i will ask for its friendship for a time then nothing happened she stood there above the skeletal remains of the tecla and watched me then she said i approach you the gereg walked up to me its claws were long and sharp but more useful for running than for fighting after a full meal a gereg will often find that it weighs too much to become airborne and so must run to escape its enemies she stood before me and looked closely into my eyes it was odd to see intelligence in small beady snake eyes and to have nearly human level communication with an animal whose brain was no larger than the first joint of my finger it seemed somehow unnatural which it was but i didn't find that out for quite some time after a while the gereg spoke again wait here she said and she turned and spread her bat-like wings she had to run a step or two before taking off and then i was alone again alone i wondered what my father would say if he were alive to say anything he wouldn't approve of course witchcraft was too eastern for him and he was too involved in trying to be a dragaran my father died when i was fourteen i never knew my mother but my father would occasionally mutter something about the witch he had married shortly before his death he squandered everything he had earned in 40 years of running a restaurant in an effort to become even more dragaran he bought a title thus we became citizens and found ourselves linked to the imperial orb the link allowed us to use sorcery a practice which my father encouraged he found a sorceress from the left hand of the gereg who was willing to teach me and he forbade me to practice witchcraft then he found a swordmaster who agreed to teach me dragaran style swordsmanship my father forbade me to study eastern fencing but my grandfather was still around one day i explained to him that even when i was full grown i would be too short and too weak to be effective as a swordsman the way i was being taught and that sorcery didn't interest me he never offered a word of criticism about my father but he began teaching me fencing and witchcraft when my father died he was pleased that i was a skilled enough sorcerer to teleport myself he didn't know that teleports made me physically ill he didn't know how often i would use witchcraft to cover up the bruises left by dragaran punks who would catch me alone and let me know what they thought of easterners with pretensions and he most certainly never knew that kyra had been teaching me how to move quietly how to walk through a crowd as if i weren't there i would use these skills too i'd go out at night with a large stick and i'd find one of my tormentors alone and leave him with a few broken bones i don't know perhaps if i'd worked a little harder at sorcery i'd have been good enough to save my father i just don't know after his death it was easier to find time to study witchcraft and fencing despite the added work of running a restaurant i started to get quite good as a witch good enough in fact that my grandfather finally said that he couldn't teach me anymore and gave me instructions in how to take the next step on my own the next step of course was she returned to the clearing with a flapping of wings this time she flew right up to me landing in front of my crossed legs in her right claw a small egg was clutched she extended it i forced down my excitement it had worked i held out my right hand after making sure it was steady the egg dropped into it i was somewhat startled by its warmth it was of a size that fit well into my palm i carefully placed it inside my jerkin next to my chest thank you mother i thought to her may your life be long your food plentiful and your children many and you she said long life and good hunting i am not a hunter i told her you will be she said and then she turned from me spread her wings and flew out from the clearing twice in the following week i almost crushed the egg that i carried around next to my chest the first time i got into a fight with a couple of jerks from the house of the orca and the second i started to carry a box of spices against my chest while working in the restaurant the incidents shook me up so i decided to make sure that nothing happened again that would put the egg in danger to protect myself against the former i learned diplomacy and to take care of the latter i sold the restaurant learning diplomacy was the more difficult task my natural inclinations didn't run that way at all and i had to be on my guard all the time but eventually i found that i could be very polite to a dragaran who was insulting me sometimes i think it was that more than anything else which trained me to be successful later on selling the restaurant was more of a relief than anything else i had been running it on my own since my father died and doing well enough to make a living but somehow i never thought of myself as a restaurateur however it did bring me up rather sharply against the problem of what i was going to do for a living both immediately and for the rest of my life my grandfather offered me a half interest in his witchcraft business but i was well aware that there was hardly enough activity to keep him going alone i also had an offer from kyra who was willing to teach me her profession but easterner thieves don't get good prices from dragaran fences besides my grandfather didn't approve of stealing i sold the place with the problem still unresolved and lived off the proceeds for a while i won't tell you what i got for it i was still young i moved into new quarters then too since the place above the restaurant was going to be taken by the new owner also i bought a blade it was a rather light rapier made to my measurements by a swordsmith of house jereg who overcharged me shamefully it was just strong enough to be able to counter the attacks of the heavier dragaran sword but light enough to be useful for the reposts by which an eastern fencer can surprise a dragaran swordsman who probably doesn't know anything beyond attack defend attack future unresolved i sat back and tended my egg about two months after i had sold the restaurant i was sitting at a card table doing a little low stakes gambling at a place that allowed easterners in that night i was the only human there and there were about four tables in action i heard raised voices from the table next to me and was about to turn around when something crashed into my chair i felt a momentary surge of panic as i almost crushed the egg against the edge of the table and i stood up the panic transformed itself to anger and without thinking i picked up my chair and broke it over the head of the guy who'd fallen into me he dropped like a hawk and lay still the guy who'd pushed him looked at me as if deciding whether to thank me or attack me i still had the chair leg in my hand i raised it and waited for him to do something then a hand gripped my shoulder and i felt a familiar coldness on the back of my neck we don't need fighting in here punk said a voice behind my right ear my adrenaline was up and i almost turned around to smash the bastard across the face despite the knife he held against me but the training i'd been giving myself came to the fore and i heard myself saying evenly my apology is good sir i assure you it won't happen again i lowered my right arm and dropped the chair leg there was no point in trying to explain to him what had happened if he hadn't seen it and even less if he had when there's a problem and an easterner is involved there is no question about who is at fault i didn't move presently i felt the knife being taken off of my neck you're right said the voice it won't happen again get out of here and don't come back i nodded once i left my money on the table where it was and walked out without looking back i settled down somewhat on my way home the incident bothered me i shouldn't have hit the guy at all i decided i had let my fear take over and i reacted without thinking this would never do as i climbed up the stairs to my apartment my mind returned to the old problem of what i was going to do i'd left almost a gold imperial's worth of coins lying on the table and that was half a week's rent it seemed that my only talents were witchcraft and beating up dragarans i didn't think that there was much of a market for either i opened the door and relaxed on the couch i took out the egg to hold it for a while as a means of soothing my nerves and stopped there was a small crack in it it must have happened when i banged against the table although i'd thought it had escaped harm it was then and there at the age of 16 that i learned the meaning of anger a sheet of white fire flashed through me as i remembered the face of the dragaran who had pushed the other into me killing my egg i learned that i was capable of murder i intended to seek out that bastard and i was going to kill him there was no question in my mind that he was a dead man i stood up and headed for the door still holding the egg and stopped again something was wrong i had a feeling which i couldn't pin down that was getting through the barrier of my anger what was it i looked down at the egg and suddenly understood in a burst of relief although not consciously aware of it i had somehow gotten a psionic link to the being inside the egg i was feeling something through it on some level and that meant that my girag was still alive anger drained from me as quickly as it had come leaving me trembling i went back into the middle of the room and set the egg down on the floor as softly as i could i felt along the link and identified the emotion i was getting from it determination just raw blind purpose i had never been in contact with such singleness of aim it was startling that a thing that small could produce such high powered emotion i stepped away from it i suppose from some unreasoning desire to give it air and watched there was an almost inaudible tap tap and the crack widened then suddenly the egg split apart and this ugly little reptile was lying amid broken shell fragments its wings were tightly drawn up against it and its eyes were closed the wings were no larger than my thumb it it he i suddenly knew he tried to move failed tried to move again and got nowhere i felt that i should be doing something although i had no idea what his eyes opened but didn't seem to focus on anything his head lay on the floor then moved pitifully i felt along my link to him and now felt confusion and a little fear i tried to send back feelings of warmth protection and all that good stuff slowly i walked up and reached for him surprisingly he must have seen my motion he obviously didn't connect the movement with the thoughts he was getting from me however for i felt a quick burst of fear and he tried to move away he failed and i picked him up gingerly i got two things for this my first clear message from him and my first jereg bite the bite was too small and the poison still too weak for it to affect me but he was certainly in possession of his fangs the message was amazingly distinct mama he said right mama i thought that over for a while then tried to send a message back no daddy i told him mama he agreed he stopped struggling and seemed to settle down in my hand i realized that he was exhausted and then realized that i was too also we were both hungry at that point it hit me what the hell was i going to feed him all the time i'd been carrying him i'd known that he was going to hatch someday but it had never really sunk in that there was actually going to be a real live gereg there i carried him into the kitchen and started hunting around let's see milk we'll start with that i managed to get out a saucer and pour a little milk into it i set it down on the counter and set the gereg down next to it his head actually in the saucer he lapped up a little and didn't seem to be having any trouble so i scouted around a little more and finally came up with a small piece of hawk wing i placed it in the saucer he found it almost at once he tore a piece off he had teeth already good and began chewing he chewed it for close to three minutes before swallowing but when he did it went down with no trouble i relaxed after that he seemed more tired than hungry so i picked him up and carried him over to the couch i lay down and placed him on my stomach i dozed off shortly thereafter we shared pleasant dreams the next day someone came to my door and clapped around mid-afternoon when i opened the door i recognized the fellow immediately he was the one who'd been running the game the day before and had told me not to come back with a knife held against the back of my neck for added emphasis i invited him in being the curious type thank you he said i am called nila please sit down my lord i am vlad taltosh whine thank you but no i don't expect to be staying very long as you wish i showed him to a seat and sat down on the couch i picked up my gereg and held him nilar arched his eyebrows but didn't say anything what can i do for you then i asked it has come to my attention he said that i was perhaps in the wrong when i faulted you for the events of yesterday what a dragaran apologizing to an easterner i wondered if the world was coming to an end this was to say the least unprecedented in my experience i mean i was a sixteen-year-old human and he was a dragaran who was probably close to a thousand it's very kind of you to say so my lord i managed he brushed it off i will also add that i liked the way you handled yourself he did i didn't what was going on here what i'm getting at he continued is that i could use someone like you if you have a mind to work for me i understand that you don't have a job at the moment and he finished with a shrug there were several thousand questions i wanted to ask him starting with how did you find out so much about me and why do you care but i didn't know how to go about asking them so i said with all respect my lord i can't see what kind of things i can do for you he shrugged again for one thing preventing the kind of problems we had last night also i need help from time to time collecting debts that sort of thing i normally have two people who assist me in running the place but one of them had an accident last week so i'm short-handed just at the moment something about the way he said accident struck me as strange but i didn't take any time out to guess at what he meant again with all respect my lord it doesn't seem to me that an easterner is going to look very imposing when standing up to a dragaran i don't know that i i'm convinced that it won't be any problem he said we have a friend in common and she assured me that you'd be able to handle this kind of thing as it happened i owe her a favor or two and she asked me to consider taking you on she there wasn't any doubt of course cairo was looking out for me again bless her heart suddenly things were a lot clearer your pay he continued would be four imperials a week plus ten percent of any outstanding debts you are said to collect or actually half of that since you'll be working with my other assistant sheesh four gold a week that was already more than i usually made while i was running the restaurant and the commission even if it was split with are you sure that this assistant of yours isn't going to object to working with a human an easterner his eyes narrowed that's my problem he said and as a matter of fact i've already discussed it with cragar and he doesn't mind at all i nodded i'll have to think it over i said that's fine you know where to reach me i nodded and showed him to the door with pleasant words on all sides i looked down at my girag as the door snicked shut well i asked him what do you think the gereg didn't answer but then i hadn't expected him to i sat down to think and to wonder if the question of my future were being settled or just put off then i put it aside i had a more important question to settle what was i going to name my girag i called him loyoch he called me mama i trained him he bit me slowly over the course of the next few months i developed an immunity to his poison even more slowly over the course of years i developed a partial immunity to his sense of humor as i stumbled into my line of work loyoch was able to help me first a little then a great deal after all who notices another zerag flying about the city the zerag on the other hand can notice a great deal slowly as time went on i grew in skill status friends and experience and just as his mother had predicted i became a hunter one success leads to stagnation stagnation leads to failure i slipped the poison dart into its slot under the right collar of my cloak next to the lockpick it couldn't go in too straight or it would be hard to get too quickly it couldn't go in at too much of an angle or i wouldn't have room left for the garage just so there every two or three days i change weapons just in case i have to leave something sticking in on or around a body i don't want the item to have been on my person long enough for a witch to trace it back to me this could i suppose be called paranoia there are damn few witches available to the dragaran empire and witchcraft isn't very highly thought of it is not likely that a witch would actually be called in to investigate a murder weapon and try to trace it back to the murderer in fact so far as i know it has never been done in the 243 years since the end of the interregnum but i believe in caution and attention to detail that is one reason i'm still around to practice my paranoia i reached for a new garat let the old one drop into a box on the floor and began working the wire into a tight coil do you realize vlad said a voice that it's been over a year since anyone has tried to kill you i looked up do you realize cragar i said that if you keep walking in here without my seeing you i'll probably die of a heart attack one of these days and save them the trouble he chuckled a little no i mean it though he continued more than a year we haven't had any trouble since that punk what was his name karanthar right garanthon since he tried to start up a business down on copper lane and you quashed it all right i said so things have been quiet what of it nothing really he said it's just that i can't figure out if it's a good sign or a bad sign i studied his seven foot frame sitting comfortably facing me against the back wall of my office craig was something of an enigma he had been with me since i had joined the business side of house gereg and had never shown the least sign of being unhappy taking orders from an easterner we'd been working together for several years now and had saved each other's lives often enough for a certain amount of trust to develop i don't see how it can be a bad sign i told him slipping the garage into its slot i've proven myself i've run my territory with no trouble paid off the right people and there's only once when i've had even a little trouble with the empire i'm accepted now human or not i added enjoying the ambiguity of the phrase and remember that i'm known as an assassin more than anything else so who would want to go out of his way to make trouble for me he looked at me quizzically for a moment that's why you keep doing work isn't it he said thoughtfully just to make sure no one forgets what you can do i shrugged craig was being more direct about things than i liked and it made me a bit uncomfortable he sensed this i guess and quickly shifted back to the earlier topic i just think that all this peace and quiet means that you haven't been moving as fast as you could that's all i mean look he continued you've built up from scratch a spy ring that's one of the best in the gereg not true i cut in i don't really have a spy ring at all there are a lot of people who are willing to give me information from time to time and that's it it isn't the same thing he brushed it aside it amounts to the same thing when we are talking about information sources and you have access to moroland's network which is aspiring in every sense of the word marolan i pointed out is not in the gereg that's a bonus he said that means you can find out things from people who wouldn't deal with you directly well all right go on okay so we have damn good freelance people and our own enforcers are competent enough to have anyone worried i think we ought to be using what we have that's all craig i said fishing out a slim throwing dagger and replacing it in the lining of my cloak would you kindly tell me why it is that i should want someone to be after my hide i'm not saying that you should said craig i'm just wondering if the fact that no one is means that we're slipping i slid a dagger into the sheath on the outside of my right thigh it was a paper thin short throwing knife small enough to be unnoticeable even when i sat down the slit in my breaches was equally unnoticeable a good compromise i felt between subtlety and speed of access what you're saying is that you're getting bored well maybe just a little but that doesn't make what i said any less true i shook my head loyoch can you believe this guy he's getting bored so he wants to get me killed my familiar flew over from his windowsill and landed on my shoulder he started licking my ear big help you are i told him i turned back to craig r no if and when something comes up we'll deal with it in the meantime i have no intention of hunting for dragons now if that's all i stopped at long last my brain started functioning cragar walks into my office with nothing on his mind except the sudden realization that we should go out and stir up trouble no no wrong i know him better than that okay i said out with it what's happened now happened he asked innocently why should something have happened i am an easterner remember i said sarcastically we get feelings about these things a smile played lightly around his lips nothing much he said only a message from the personal secretary to the demon gulp the demon as he was called was one of five members of a loose knit council which to some degree controlled the business activities of house gereg the council a collection of the most powerful people in the house had never had an official existence until the interregnum but they'd been around long before then they ran things to the extent of settling disputes within the organization and making sure that things didn't get so messy that the empire had to step in since the interregnum they had been a little more than that they'd been the group that had put the house back together after the empire began to function again now they existed with clearly defined duties and responsibilities and everyone who did anything at all in the organization gave part of the profits to them the demon was generally acknowledged to be the number two man in the organization the last time i had met with someone that high up was in the middle of a war with another zereg and the council member i'd spoken to had let me know that i'd better find a way to get things settled or he would i have no pleasant memories of that meeting what does he want i asked he wants to meet with you oh crap double crap dragon dung any ideas why no he did pick a meeting place in our territory for whatever that's worth it isn't worth a whole lot i said which place the blue flame restaurant said craig the blue flame eh what does that bring to mind i seem to recall that you worked there twice that's right it's a real good place for killing someone high booths wide aisles low lighting and in an area where people like to mind their own business that's the place he set it up for two hours past noon tomorrow after noon cragar looked puzzled that's right afternoon that means when most people have eaten lunch but haven't eaten supper yet you must have come across the concept before i ignored his sarcasm you're missing the point i said flipping a shuriken into the wall next to his ear funny vlad quiet now how do you go about killing an assassin especially someone who's careful not to let his movements fall into any pattern you set up a meeting with him just like the demon is doing right and of course you do everything you can to make him suspicious don't you uh maybe you do i don't damn right you don't you make it sound like a simple business meeting and that means you arrange to buy the guy a meal and that means you don't arrange it for some time like two hours past noon he was quiet for a while as he tried to follow my somewhat convoluted logic okay he said at last i agree that this is somewhat abnormal now why i'm not sure tell you what find out everything you can about him bring it back here and we'll try to figure it out it might not mean anything but kregar smiled and pulled a small notebook from inside his cloak he began reading the demon he said true name unknown young probably under 800 no one heard of him before the interregnum he emerged just after it by personally killing two of the three members of the old council who survived the destruction of the city of dragara and the plagues and invasions he built an organization from what was left and helped make the house profitable again as a matter of fact vlad he said looking up it seems that it was his idea to allow easterners to buy titles in the gereg now that's interesting i said so i have him to thank for my father being able to squander the profits from forty years of work in order to be spat upon as a gereg in addition to being spat upon as an easterner i'll have to find some way to thank him for that i might point out said cragar that if your father hadn't bought that title you wouldn't have had the chance to join the business end of the house maybe but go on there isn't much more to tell he didn't exactly make it to the top it would be more accurate to say that he made it somewhere and then declared the top to be where he was you have to remember that things were pretty much a mess back then and of course he was tough enough and good enough to make it stick as far as i can tell he hasn't had any serious threats to his power since he got there he has a habit of spotting potential challenges while they're still weak and getting rid of them in fact do you remember that fellow leonia we took out last year i nodded well i think that may have come indirectly from the demon we'll never know for sure of course but as i said he likes to get rid of potential problems early yeah do you think he could see me as a potential problem cragar thought that over i suppose he might but i don't quite see why you've been staying out of trouble and as i said before you haven't really been moving very fast since the first couple of years the only time there's been any problem was the business with larys last year and i think everyone knows that he forced it on you i hope so does the demon do work craig shrugged we can't say for sure but it looks like he does we know that he used to as i said he took out those two council members personally back when he was getting started great so in addition to whatever he could have set up he might be planning to do the job himself i suppose he could but i still can't figure out look cragar with someone like the demon something like this wouldn't happen by accident would it something like like carefully arranging a meeting in just such a ways to arouse my suspicions no i don't think he what is it i guess he caught the look on my face which must have been simply precious i shook my head that's it of course what he asked is what craig are arranged for three bodyguards for me okay bodyguards but make them bus boys or something you won't have any trouble i own half interest in the place which i might add i'm sure the demon is aware of don't you think he'll catch on of course he'll catch on that's the point he knows that i'm going to be nervous about meeting him so he deliberately set up the meeting with an irregularity to make me suspicious so i'll have an excuse to have protection there he's going out of his way to say go ahead and do what you have to to feel safe i won't be offended i shook my head again i was starting to get dizzy i hope i don't ever have to go up against the son of a he's devious your devious boss said cragar i sometimes think you know dragarans better than other dragarans do i do i said flatly and that's because i'm not one he nodded okay three bodyguards our own people or freelance make one of them our own and hire the other two there isn't any need to rub his nose in it in case he recognizes our people right you know cragar i said thoughtfully i'm not real happy about this he must know me well enough to know that i'd figure out what he was doing which means this could be a setup after all i held up my hand as he started to speak no i'm not saying that i think it is just that he could be well you could always tell him that you can't make it sure then if he isn't planning to kill me now he'd be sure to after that probably admitted cragar but what else can you do i can a lot and go meet with him okay that's tomorrow anything else going on yeah he said some tecla got mugged the night before last a couple of blocks from here i cursed hurt bad craig shook his head a fractured draw and a couple of bruises nothing serious but i thought you'd like to know right thanks i take it you haven't found the guy who did it not yet well find him it'll cost screw the cost it'll cost more if all our customers get scared away find the guy and make an example of him gregor raised an eyebrow no i said not that much of an example and find a healer for that tecla on us i take it he was a customer everyone around here is a customer one way or another yeah so pay for a healer and reimburse him how much did the guy get by the way almost two imperials which could have been the dragon treasury to hear him tell it i suppose so tell you what why don't you have the victim come up and see me and i'll pay him back personally and give him a talk about crime in the streets and how bad i feel as a fellow citizen of course about what happened to him then he can go home and tell all his friends what a nice guy uncle vlad the easterner is and maybe we'll even pull in some new business out of the deal sheer genius boss said craig i snorted anything else nothing important i guess i'll go arrange for your protection for tomorrow fine and make it good people as i say this has me worried paranoia boss yep paranoid and proud he nodded and left i wrapped spellbreaker around my right wrist the two foot length of gold chain was the one weapon that i didn't change since i had no intention of ever leaving it behind me as its name implied it broke spells if i was going to be hit with a magical attack unlikely even if this was a setup i'd want it ready i flexed my arm and tested the weight good i turned to loyoch who was still resting comfortably on my right shoulder he'd been strangely silent during the conversation what's the matter i asked him psionically bad feelings about the meeting tomorrow no bad feelings about having a tecla in the office can i eat him boss can i huh huh i laughed and went back to changing weapons with an all-new enthusiasm 2. there is no substitute for good manners except fast reflexes the blue flame is on a short street called copper lane just off lower chiron road i arrived 15 minutes early and carefully selected a seat that put my back to the door i decided that if loyoche working along with the people we had planted here couldn't give me enough warning the difference it would make if i were facing the door probably wouldn't matter this way in case the meeting was legitimate which i strongly suspected it was i was showing the demon that i trusted him and negating any feelings of disrespect he might get from seeing that i had brought protection loyoche was perched on my left shoulder watching the door i ordered a white wine and waited i spotted one of my enforcers bussing dishes but couldn't identify either of the freelancers good if i couldn't spot them there was a good chance that the demon couldn't i sipped my wine slowly still chuckling slightly over the meeting i'd had earlier with the tecla what was his name who'd been mugged it had gone well enough though i had had to work to avoid bursting out laughing for my trusty jeric familiars constant psionic appeals of oh come on boss please can't i eat him i have a nasty familiar i kept tight control on the amount of wine i was drinking the last thing i needed right now was to be slowed down i flexed my right ankle feeling the hilt of one of my boot knives press reassuringly against my calf i nudged the table an inch or so away from me since i was sitting in a booth and couldn't position my chair i noted the locations of the spices on the table as objects to throw or things to get in the way and i waited five minutes after the hour according to the imperial clock i received a warning from loyoche i set my right arm crosswise on the table so that my hand was two inches away from my left sleeve that was as close as i wanted to come to holding a weapon a rather large guard type appeared in front of my table nodded to me and stepped back a well-dressed trigaran in grey and black approached and sat down opposite me i waited for him to speak it was his meeting so it was up to him to set the tone also my mouth was suddenly very dry you are vladimir taltosh he asked pronouncing my name correctly i nodded and took a sip of wine you are the demon he nodded i offered wine and we drank to each other's health i wouldn't swear to the sincerity of the toast my hand was steady as i held the glass good he sipped his wine delicately watching me all of his motions were slow and controlled i thought i could see where a dagger was hidden up his right sleeve i noticed a couple of bulges where other weapons might be in his cloak he probably noticed the same in mine he was indeed young for his position he looked to be somewhere between 800 and a thousand which is 35 or 40 to a human he had those eyes that never seemed capable of opening to more than slits like mine say cragar was right this was an assassin we understand he said swirling the wine in his glass that you do work i kept the surprise off my face was i about to be offered a contract from the demon why perhaps this was just an effort to get me off my guard i couldn't figure it if he really wanted me for something he should have gone through about half a dozen intermediaries i'm afraid not i told him measuring my words i don't get involved with that kind of thing then i have a friend who does he looked away for a moment then nodded i see could you put me in touch with this friend he doesn't get out much i explained i can get a message to him if you like he nodded still not looking at me i suppose your friend is an easterner too as a matter of fact he is does it matter it might tell him we'd like him to work for us if he's available i hope he has access to your information sources i suspect this job will require all of them [Music] oh ho so that's why he'd come to me he knew that my ways of obtaining information were good enough that even he would have trouble matching them i allowed myself a little bit of cautious optimism this just might be legitimate on the other hand i still couldn't see why he'd come personally there were several questions i very badly wanted to ask him such as why me and why you but i couldn't approach them directly the problem was he wasn't going to give me any more information until he had a certain amount of commitment from me and i didn't feel like giving him that commitment until i knew more suggestions loyoch you could ask him who the target is that's exactly what i don't want to do that commits me only if he answers what makes you think he won't answer i'm a jericho remember he said sarcastically we get feelings about these things one of loyos's great skills is throwing my own lines back at me the damnable thing about it was that he might be simply telling the truth the demon remained politely silent during the psionic conversation either because he didn't notice it or out of courtesy i suspected the latter who i said aloud the demon turned back to me then and looked at me for what seemed to be a long time then he turned his face to the side again someone who's worth sixty five thousand going to us he said this time i couldn't keep my expression from showing 65 000 that was let me see over 30 no 40 times the standard fee for that kind of money i could build my wife the castle she'd been talking about hell i could build it twice i could bloody well retire i could who are you after i asked again forcing my voice to stay low and even the empress he smiled a little is your friend interested he was no longer pronouncing the quotation marks i noted not in taking out the empress don't worry we aren't expecting mario as it happened that was the wrong thing for him to say just then it started me thinking for the kind of gold he was talking about he could hire mario why wouldn't he i thought of one reason right away the someone who had to be taken out was so big that whoever did the job would have to be eliminated himself afterwards they would know better than to try that on mario but with me well yes i wasn't so well protected that i couldn't be disposed of by the resources the demon had at his disposal it fit in another way too it explained why the demon had shown up personally if he was in fact planning to have me take a fall after doing the job he wouldn't care that i knew that he was behind it and wouldn't want a lot of other people in his organization to know hiring someone to do something and then killing him when he does it is not strictly honorable but it's been done i pushed the thought aside for the moment what i wanted was a clear idea of what was going on i had a suspicion yes but i wasn't at sir i needed more than a suspicion to take any action so the question remained who was it that the demon wanted me to nail for him someone big enough that the man who did it had to go to a high noble possible but why who had crossed the demon the demon was sharp he was careful he didn't make many enemies he was on the council he wait the council sure that had to be it either someone on the council was trying to get rid of him or he finally decided that being number two wasn't enough if it was the latter sixty five thousand wasn't enough i knew who i'd be going after and he was as close to untouchable as it is possible to get in either case it didn't sound hopeful what else could it be someone high up in the demon's organization suddenly deciding to open his mouth to the empire damn unlikely the demon wouldn't make the kind of mistakes that led to that no it had to be someone on the council and that as i'd guessed would mean that whoever did the job might have a lot of trouble staying alive after he'd have too much information on the fellow who had given him the job and he'd know too much about internal squabbles on the council i started to shake my head but the demon held his hand up it isn't what you think he said the only reason we aren't trying to get hold of mario is because there have to be certain conditions attached to the job conditions that mario wouldn't accept nothing more than that i felt a brief flash of anger but pushed it back down before it showed what the hell made him think he could stick me with conditions that mario wouldn't accept 65 000 gold that's what i thought a little longer the problem was of course that the demon had a reputation for honesty he wasn't known as the type who'd hire an assassin and then set him up on the other hand if they were talking about 65 000 things were desperate in some fashion already he could be desperate enough to do a lot of things he otherwise wouldn't do the figure 65 000 gold imperials kept running through my head however one other figure kept meeting it 150 gold that's the average cost of a funeral i think i told him at last that my friend would not be interested in taking out a member of the council he nodded in appreciation of the way my mind worked but said you're close an ex-member of the council what more and more riddles i hadn't realized i said slowly that there was more than one way to leave the council and if the guy had taken that way they certainly didn't need my services neither had we he said but melar found a way at last a name melar melar let me see right he was awfully tough he had a good solid organization brains and well enough muscle and resources to get and hold a position on the council but why had the demon told me was he planning to kill me after all if i turned him down or was he taking a chance on being able to convince me what way is that i asked sipping my wine to take 9 million gold in council operating funds and disappear i almost choked by the sacred balls of the imperial phoenix absconding with gereg funds with council funds my head started hurting when when did this happen i managed yesterday he was watching the expression on my face he nodded grimly nervy bastard isn't he i nodded back you know i said you're going to have one of a time keeping this quiet that's right he said we just aren't going to be able to for very long for a moment his eyes went cold and i began to understand how the demon had gotten his name he took everything we had he said tightly we all have our own funds of course and we've been using them in the investigation but on the kind of scale we're working on we can't keep it up long i shook my head once this gets out he'd better be dead the demon finished for me or every two silver piece thief in the empire is going to think he can take us and one of them will do it too something else hit me at that point i realized that for one thing i could accept this job quite safely once melar was dead it wouldn't matter if word got out what he'd tried however if i turned it down i was suddenly a big risk and shortly thereafter i suspected a small corpse once again the demon seemed to guess what i was thinking no he said flatly he leaned forward earnestly i assure you that if you turn me down nothing will happen to you i know that we can trust you that's one reason we came to you i wondered briefly if he were reading my mind i decided that he wasn't an easterner is not an easy person to mind probe and i doubted that he could do it without my being aware of it and i was sure he couldn't do it without loyos noticing of course if you turn us down and then let something slip his voice trailed off i suppressed a shudder i did some more hard thinking it would seem to me i said that this has to be done soon he nodded and that's why we can't get mario there's no way we can rush him and you think you can rush my friend he shrugged i think we're paying for it i had to agree with that there was at least no time limit but i had never before accepted work without the understanding that i had as much time as i needed how much i wondered would it throw me off to have to hurry do you have any idea where he went we strongly suspect that he headed out east at least if i were pulling something like this that's where i'd go i shook my head that doesn't make sense trigorans out east are treated about the same as easterners are treated here worse if anything he'd be considered if you'll pardon the expression a demon he'd stand out like a morganti weapon in the imperial palace he smiled true enough but we have the fewest resources there so it would take a while for word to get back to us also we've had the best sorceresses from the left hand looking for him since we found out what happened and we can't find him i shrugged he could have put up a block against tracing he definitely has done that well then he shook his head you have no idea the kind of power we are pouring into this we could break down any block he could put up no matter how long he's been planning it or who the sorcerer is who put the block up if he was anywhere within a hundred miles of ardalanka we'd have broken it by now or at least found a general area that we couldn't penetrate so you can guarantee that he isn't within a hundred miles of the city right now it's possible that he's in the jungle to the west in which case we'll probably find him within the next day or two but i'd guess he'd bolted for the east i nodded slowly so you came to me figuring that i can operate out there easier than a dragaran that's right and of course we know that you have an extremely formidable information network my information network i said doesn't extend to the east that was almost true my sources back in my ancestral homeland were few and far between still there wasn't any reason to let the demon in on everything i had well then he said there's an additional bonus for you by the time this is over you'll probably have something where you didn't before i smiled at his riposte and nodded a little and so i said you want my friend to go out to wherever malar is hiding and get your gold back that would be nice he admitted but it's secondary the main thing is to make sure that no one gets the idea that it's safe to steal from us even cairo bless her sweet little fingers hasn't tried that i'll add that i take this whole thing very personally and i will feel very warmly toward whomever does this particular little job for me i sat back and fought for a long time then the demon was politely silent 65 000 gold and of course having the demon owe me a favor was better than a poke in the eye with a morganti dagger by all means morganti i asked he shrugged it has to be permanent however you want to do it if you happen to destroy his soul in the process i won't be upset but it isn't necessary just so that he ends up dead with no chance of anyone revivifying him yeah you say that the left hand is working on locating him right the best they've got that can't be helping your security any he shrugged they know who they don't know why as far as they're concerned it's a personal matter between malar and me you may not realize it but the left hand tends to take less of an interest in what the council is doing than the lowest pimp on the streets i'm not worried about security from that end but if this goes on too long word will get out that i'm looking for malar and someone who notices that the council is having financial trouble will start counting the eggs i suppose okay i suspect that my friend will be willing to take this on he's going to need whatever information you have about malar as a starting point the demon held his hand out to the side the bodyguard who had been standing politely and safely out of earshot placed a rather formidable looking sheaf of papers in it the demon handed these over to me it's all there he said all as much as we know i'm afraid it may not be as much as you'd like okay i briefly ruffled through the papers you've been busy i remarked he smiled if there's anything else i need i said i'll get back to you fine it should be obvious but your friend is going to have all the help he needs on this one in that case i presume you're going to continue with your searching you have access to better sorcerers than my friend has you could keep going on that front i intend to he said dryly and i should also mention something else if we happen to run into him before you do and see an opportunity we're going to take him ourselves i mean no disrespect by that but i think you can understand that this is a rather special situation i can't say i like it i said but i understand i wasn't at all happy about it in fact sure my fee would be safe but things like that can cause complications and complications scare me i shrugged i think you can understand too and i mean no disrespect by this that if some tecla gets in the way and my friend thinks the guy's going to bungle it my friend will have to put him down the demon nodded i sighed communication was such a fine thing i raised my glass to friends i said he smiled and raised his two friends three everyone is a predator work comes in three variations each with its own effect purpose price and penalty the simplest is not used often but happens enough to have acquired the term standard the idea is that you want to warn an individual away from a certain course of action or toward another in this case for a fee that starts at 1500 gold and goes up from there depending on how hard the target is an assassin will arrange for the selected individual to become dead what happens after that doesn't much matter to the killer but as often as not the body will eventually be found by a friend or relative who may or may not be willing and able to have the person revivified revivification costs heavily up to four thousand gold for difficult cases even the easiest takes an expert sorcerer to perform and it is never a sure thing in other words the victim will wake up if he does with the knowledge that there is someone out there and he usually knows who who doesn't really care if he lives or dies and is willing to expend at least fifteen hundred gold imperials to prove this this is rather chilling knowledge it happened to me once when i started pushing into the territory of a fellow who was just the least bit tougher than i was i got the message all right i knew just what he was telling me without any room for mistakes i can take you anytime i want punk and i'd do it too only you aren't worth more than fifteen hundred gold to dispose of and it worked i was returned to life by sethra lavod after kyra found my body lying in a gutter i backed off i've never bothered the guy since either of course someday now you should understand to begin with that there are some rather strict laws concerning the circumstances under which one person may legally kill another and they involve things like authorized dueling area imperial witnesses and the like assassination just never seems to qualify as a legal taking of a life this brings us to the biggest single problem with the kind of job i've just mentioned you have to be sure that the victim doesn't get a look at your face if he were returned to life and he went to the empire strictly against geraig custom but the assassin could find himself arrested for murder there would follow an inquisition and the possibility of conviction a conviction of murder will bring a permanent end to an assassin's career when the empire holds an execution they burn the body to make sure no one gets hold of it to revivify it at the other extreme from simply killing someone and leaving his body to be found and possibly revivified is a special kind of murder which is almost never done to take an example let us say that an assassin whom you have hired is caught by the empire and tells them who hired him in exchange for his worthless soul what do you do you've already marked him as dead no way the empire can protect him enough to keep a top-notch assassin out but that isn't enough not for someone low enough to talk to the empire about you so what do you do you scrape together oh at least six thousand gold and you arrange to meet with the best assassin you can find an absolute top-notch professional and give him the name of the target and you say morganti unlike any other kind of situation you will probably have to explain your reasons even the coldest most vicious assassin will find it distasteful to use a weapon that will destroy a person's soul chances are he won't do it unless you have a damn good reason why it has to be done that way and no other there are times though when nothing else will do i've worked that way twice it was fully justified both times believe me it was however just as the gereg makes exceptions in the cases where a morganti weapon is to be used so does the empire they suddenly forget all about their rules against the torture of suspects and forced mind probes so there are very real risks here when they finished with you whatever is left is given to a morganti blade as a form of poetic justice i suppose there is however a happy middle ground between morganti killings and fatal warnings the bread and butter of the assassin if you want someone to go and you don't want him coming back and you're connected to the organization i don't know any assassin stupid enough to work for anyone outside the house you should figure that it will cost you at least three thousand gold naturally it will be higher if the person is especially tough or hard to get to or important the highest i've ever heard of anyone being paid is well excuse me sixty five thousand gold ahem i expect that mario grey mist was paid a substantially higher fee for killing the old phoenix emperor just before the interregnum but i've never heard a figure quoted and so my fledgling assassins you are asking me how you make sure that a corpse remains properly a corpse eh without using a morganti weapon whose problems we've just discussed i know of three methods and have used all of them and combinations during my career first you can make sure that the body isn't found for three full days after which time the soul will have departed the most common method for doing this is to pay a moderate fee usually around three to five hundred gold to a sorceress from the left hand of the gereg who will guarantee that the body is undisturbed for the requisite period or of course you can arrange to secrete the body yourself risky and not at all pleasant to be seen carrying a body around it causes talk the second method if you aren't so greedy is to pay these same sorceresses something closer to a thousand or even fifteen hundred of your newly acquired gold and they will make sure that no matter who does what the body will never be revivified or third you can make the body unrevivifiable burn it chop off the head use your imagination for myself i'll stick with the methods i developed in the course of my first couple of years of working hours of planning split second timing precise calculations and a single sharp accurate knife i haven't bungled one yet craigar was waiting for me when i returned i filled him in on the conversation and the result he looked judicious it's too bad he remarked when i had finished that you don't have a friend you can unload this one on what do you mean friend i said i he looked startled for a minute then grinned no you don't he said you took the job you'd do it i know i know but what did you mean don't you think we're up to it vlad this guy is good he was on the council you think you can just walk up to him and put a dagger into his left eye i never meant to imply that i thought it was going to be easy so we have to put a little work into it a little alright a lot so we put a lot of work into the setup i told you what i'm getting for it and you know what your percentage is what's happened to your innate sense of greed anyway i don't need one he said you've got enough of both of us i ignored that the first step i told him is locating the guy can you come up with some method for figuring out where he might be hiding cragar looked thoughtful tell you what vlad just for variety this time you do all the setup work and when you're done i'll take him out what do you say i gave him the most eloquent look i could manage he sighed all right all right you say he's got sorcery blocked out for tracing apparently and the demon is using the best there is to look for in that way in any case hmm are we working under the assumption that the demon is right that he's out east somewhere good point i thought about it no let's not start out making any assumptions at all what we know because the demon guaranteed it is that malar's nowhere within a hundred mile radius of adrelanka for the moment let's assume that he could be anywhere outside of that which includes a few thousand square miles of jungle true you aren't going out of your way to make my life easy are you i shrugged cragar was thoughtfully silent for a while what about witchcraft vlad do you think you can trace him with that i would doubt that he thought to protect himself against it even if he could witchcraft let me think i don't know witchcraft really isn't very good for that sort of thing i mean i could probably find him to the extent of getting an image and a psionic fix but there isn't any way of going from there to a hard location or teleport coordinates or anything really useful i guess we could use it to make sure he's alive but i suspect we can safely assume that anyway craig are nodded and looked thoughtful well he said after a time if you have any kind of psionic fix at all maybe you can come up with something demar could use to find out where he is he's good at that kind of thing now there was an idea demar was strange but psionics were his specialty if anyone could do it he could i'm not sure we want to get that many people involved in this i said the demon wouldn't be real happy about the number of potential leaks we'd have to generate and damar isn't even a gereg so don't mention it to the demon said krager the thing is we have to find him right and we know we can trust demo right well oh come on vlad if you ask him not to talk about it he won't besides where else can you get expert help on that level without paying a thing for it demar enjoys showing off he'd do it for free what can we lose i raised my eyebrow and looked at him there is that he admitted but i think the risk involved in telling demar as much as we have to tell him is pretty damn small especially when you consider what we're getting for it if he can do it i think he can said craig all right i said i'm sold quiet a minute while i figure out what i'm going to need i ran through in my mind what i was going to have to do to locate malar and what i'd have to do so that daymar could trace him afterwards i wished i knew more about how damar did things like that but i could make a reasonable guess it seemed that it would be a pretty straightforward spell which really should work if melar had no blocks against witchcraft i built up a mental list of what i'd need nothing out of the ordinary i already had everything except for one small matter craig put word out on the street that i'd like to arrange to see kyra at her convenience of course okay any preference on where you meet no just some wait i interrupted myself and thought for a minute in my office i had witchcraft protections and alarms i knew these were hard to beat and i wasn't happy about taking any chances at all of this information leaking out the demon would be upset anyway if he knew that i was dealing with kyra i didn't really like the idea of having one of his people see me talking with her in some public place on the other hand kyra was well kyra hmm tough question hell with it i decided i'd just shocked the staff a little it'd be good for them i'd like to meet her here in my office if that's all right with her cragar looked startled and seemed about to say something but changed his mind i guess when he realized that i'd just gone over all of the objections myself all right he said now about demar you know what kind of problems we have reaching him do you want me to figure out a way no thanks i'll take care of it all by yourself my goodness no i'm going to get loyoce to help there feel better he snickered and left i got up and opened the window loyoch i thought to my familiar find damar as your majesty requests he answered feel free to save the sarcasm a telepathic giggle is an odd thing to experience loyoce flew out the window i sat down again and stared off blankly for a while how many times had i been in this position just at the beginning of a job with no idea of where it was going or how it would get there nothing really except an image of how it should end as always with a corpse how many times it isn't really a rhetorical question this would be the forty second assassination i'd done my first thought was that it was going to be somewhat different than the others at some level in some way to some degree i have clear memories of each one the process i go through before i do the job is such that i can't forget any of them i have to get to know them too well this would certainly be a problem if i were given two nightmares the fourth one he was the button man who would always order a fine liqueur after dinner and leave half the bottle instead of a tip the twelfth was a small-time muscle who liked to keep his cash in the largest denominations he could the 19th was a sorcerer who carried a cloth around with him to polish his staff with which he did constantly there is always something distinct about them sometimes it is something i can use more often it is just something that sticks out in my memory when you know someone well enough he becomes an individual no matter how hard you try to think of him as just a face or a body but if you take it back a level you once more wind up with the similarities being important because when they come to me as names mentioned in a conversation over a quiet meal with a purse handed over which will contain somewhere between fifteen hundred and four thousand gold imperials they are all the same and i treat them the same plan the job do it i usually worked backwards after finding out everything i could about his habits and following him tracking him and timing him for days sometimes for weeks i'd decide where i wanted it to happen that would usually determine the time and often the day as well then it was a matter of starting from there and working things so that all of the factors came together then and there the execution itself was only interesting if i made a mistake somewhere along the line craig once asked me when i was feeling particularly mellow if i enjoyed killing people i didn't answer because i didn't know but it set me to thinking i'm still not really sure i know that i enjoy the planning of a job and setting it in motion so that everything works out but the actual killing i don't think i either consciously enjoy it or fail to enjoy it i just do it i leaned back and closed my eyes the beginning of a job like this is like the beginning of a witchcraft spell the most important single thing is my frame of mind when i begin i want to make absolutely sure that i have no preconceived notions about how or where or anything that comes later i hadn't even begun to study the fellow yet so i didn't have anything to really go on the little i did know went rolling around my subconscious free associating letting images and ideas pop up and be casually discarded sometimes when i'm in the middle of planning i'll get a sudden inspiration or what appears to be a sudden burst of brilliance i fancy myself an artist at times like this i came out of my reverie slowly with the feeling that there was something i should be thinking about i wasn't really fully awake yet so it took me a while to become aware of what it was there was a stray questing thought fluttering around in my forebrain after a while i realized that it had an external source i gave it some freedom to grow and take shape enough for me to recognize it and discovered that someone was trying to get into psionic contact with me i recognized the sender ah damar i thought back thank you no problem came the clear gentle thought you wanted something demar had better mental control and more power than anyone i'd ever met i got the feeling from him that he had to be careful even in mental contact lest he burn my mind out accidentally i'd like a favor damar yes he had a way of making his yes last about four times as long as it should nothing right now i told him but sometime within the next day or so i expect to need some locating done locating what kind of locating i expect to have a psionic tag on a fellow i'm interested in finding and i'll want some way to figure out exactly where he is craig thinks you can do it is there some reason why i couldn't just trace him now he has a block up against sorcery tracing spells i told him i don't think even you can get past them i was damn sure damar couldn't get past a block that was holding off the best sorcerers of the left hand but a little judicious flattery never hurt anything oh he said then how do you expect to put a tag on him i'm hoping he didn't protect himself against witchcraft since witchcraft uses psionic power we should be able to leave a mark on him that you can find i see you're going to try to fix him with a witchcraft spell and then i locate him psionically from the marks left by that interesting idea thank you do you think it will work no i sighed damar i thought to myself someday i'm going to why not i asked with some hesitation the marks he explained won't stay around long enough for me to trace them if they do they'll also be strong enough for him to notice and he'll just wipe them out i sighed again never argue with an expert all right i said do you have any ideas for something that would work yes he said i waited but he didn't go on damar i said to myself someday i'm definitely going to what is it the reverse the reverse he explained i asked a few questions and he was able to answer them more or less i began thinking of what kind of spell i'd have to do to get the kind of effect he was talking about a crystal i decided and then i'd start the spell out just like the other one and then i remembered that damar was still in contact with me which in turn brought up another point that i really ought to clarify given whom i was dealing with are you willing to do the locating for me i asked there was a brief pause then sure if i can watch you do the witchcraft spell [Music] why am i not surprised i sighed to myself once more it's a deal i said how do i get in touch with you can i count on finding you at home if i send loyoce again he thought about that then probably not i'll open up for contact for a few seconds on the hour each hour starting tomorrow morning will that do that will be fine i said i'll get in touch with you before i start the spell excellent until then until then and damar thanks my pleasure he said actually i reflected it probably was but it wouldn't have been politic to say so the link was broken some time later loyoch returned i opened the window in answer to his knocking why he preferred to knock rather than just contact me i don't know after he was in i closed it behind him thanks sure boss i resumed reading loyoce perched on my right shoulder this time and pretended to be reading along with me or who knows maybe he really did learn to read somehow and just never bother to inform me i wouldn't put it past him the job was underway i couldn't really go any further until i had some idea of where malar was so i turned my attention to who he was instead this kept me occupied until my next visitor arrived a few hours later 4. inspiration requires preparation my receptionist in the two years he'd been with me had killed three people outside the door of my office one was an assassin whose bluff didn't quite work the other two were perfectly innocent fools who should have known better than to try to bluster their way past him he was killed once himself delaying another assassin long enough for me to heroically escape out the window i was very relieved when we were successful in having him revivified he fulfills the function of bodyguard recording secretary buffer and whatever else either craig or i need he may well be the highest paid receptionist in the world a boss yes uh kyra is here oh good send her in that's kaira the thief boss are you sure quite sure thank you but ok should i escort her in and keep an eye that won't be necessary or sufficient i thought to myself just send her in okay whatever you want i put down the papers and stood up as the door opened a small dragaran female form entered the room i recalled with some amusement that i had thought her tall when we had first met but then i was only 11 at the time and of course she was still more than a head taller than i but by now i was used to the size difference she moved with ease and grace almost reminiscent of mario she flowed up to me and greeted me with a kiss that would have made cotty jealous if she were the jealous type i gave as good as i got and pulled up a chair for her kyra had a sharp rather angular face with no noticeable house characteristics the lack of which was typical for a gireg she allowed me to seat her and made a quick glance around the office her eyes clicked from one place to another making notes of significant items this wasn't surprising she taught me how to do it on the other hand i suspected that she was looking for different things than i would be she favored me with a smile thanks for coming kyra i said as warmly as i could glad to she said softly nice office thanks how's business been not hurting vlad i haven't had any contract jobs in a while but i've been doing all right on my own how about you i shook my head what is it problems she asked genuinely concerned i went and got greedy again uh oh i know what that means somebody offered something too big to pass up eh and you couldn't resist so you're in over your head right something like that she slowly shook her head loyoch interrupted then flapping over to her and landing on her shoulder she renewed their acquaintance scratching under his chin the last time that happened she said after a while you found yourself fighting an ethyra wizard right in his own castle as i recall that kind of thing isn't healthy vlad i know i know but remember i won with help well yes one can always use a little help always she agreed which i imagine brings us to this it must be something big or you wouldn't have wanted to meet here perceptive as always i said not only big but nasty i can't risk anyone catching wind of this i'm hoping no one saw you come in i can't risk being seen with you and having certain parties guess that i'm letting you in on what's going on no one saw me come in she said i nodded i knew her if she said no one had seen her i had no reason to doubt it but she continued what are your own people going to say when they find you've been meeting me in your own office they'll think you've finally gone into the jungle you know she was smiling lightly baiting me she knew her reputation no problem i said i'll just let it slip that we've been lovers for years she laughed now there's an idea of lord we should have thought of that cycles ago this time i laughed then what would your friends say kyra the thief consorting with an easterner tut-tut they won't say anything she said flatly i have a friend who does work speaking of which right to business i take it you want something stolen i nodded do you know of a certain lord malar house your egg i think he's officially a count or a duke or some such her eyes widened slightly going after big game aren't you vlad you certainly are in over your head i know him all right i've helped him out a couple of times not recently i said with a sudden sinking feeling she looked at me quizzically but didn't ask what i meant no not in the last few months it wasn't anything big any of the times just sort of an exchange of favors you know how it goes i nodded quite relieved he isn't a friend or anything is he she shook her head no we just did a few things for each other i don't owe him good and speaking of owing by the way i placed a purse on my desk in front of her it held 500 gold imperials she didn't touch it yet of course how would you like to have me owe you still another favor i'm always happy to have you in my debt she said lightly what does he have that you want any of a number of things a piece of clothing would be good hair would be excellent anything that has a long association with him she shook her head once more in mock sadness more of your eastern witchcraft vlad i'm afraid so i admitted you know how we are always like to keep our hand in and all i'll bet she took the purse and stood up okay you're on it shouldn't take more than a day or two no hurry i lied politely i stood as she left and bowed her out how long do you think it will actually take her asked craig how long have you been sitting there not too long i shook my head in disgust i wouldn't be surprised if we had it tomorrow not bad he said did you talk to damar yes and i explained the outcome of our conversation he shrugged over the technical details of the witchcraft but caught the gist of it he laughed a bit when i explained that damar had managed to include himself in the spell well do you think it will work he asked damar thinks it will work i think it will work he seemed satisfied with his answer so nothing happens until we hear from cairo right right good i think i'll go catch up on my sleep wrong what now oh master you're getting as bad as loyoce what's that supposed to mean boss shut up loyoch right boss i picked up the notes on malar that i'd been reading and handed them to craig r read i said let me know what you think he ruffled through them briefly there's a lot here yeah look vlad my eyes are sore how about tomorrow read he sighed and started reading you know what strikes me vlad he asked a bit later what there's been something funny about this guy since he first showed up in the organization what do you mean he paged through the notes quickly and continued he moved too fast he made it from nowhere to the top in just over ten years that's damned quick i've never heard of anyone except you moving that quickly and you have the excuse of being an easterner i mean look he went on he starts out protecting a little brothel right a muscle a year later he's running the place a year after that he has ten more in eight years he's got a territory bigger than you have now a year after that he wipes out terry on and takes his place on the council the year after that he grabs up the council funds and vanishes it's almost as if he had the whole thing figured out when he started hmm i see what you're saying but isn't ten years a long time to set up one job you're thinking like an easterner again vlad it isn't a long time if you expect to have a two thousand or three thousand year lifetime i nodded and thought over what he'd suggested i can't see it craig i said finally how much gold was it that he got nine million he said almost referently right now that's a lot that's one hell of a lot if i ever have a tenth of that in one place at one time i'll retire but would you throw away a position on the council for it cragar started to speak stopped i continued and that isn't the only way to get nine million gold either it isn't the best the fastest or the easiest he could have gone freelance and done a lot better than that over those same ten years he could have held up the dragon treasury and doubled it at least and not be taking any more risk than he is with this thing craig nodded that's true are you saying that he wasn't after the gold not at all i'm suggesting that he may have developed a sudden need to have a few million and this was the only way to get it in a hurry i don't know vlad just looking at his whole history it sure seems like he had this planned out from the start but why krakow no one works his way up to a seat on the council for money you have to be after power to do something like that you should know said craig are smirking and you don't throw away that kind of power unless you have to maybe he lost interest in it he said maybe he was just after the thrill of getting to the top and after he made it he went after a new thrill if that's true i remarked he's going to get his thrills and then some but doesn't that go against your he planned it all from the start theory i suppose it does i'm beginning to get the feeling that we don't have enough information all we're doing is guessing true enough so how about if you start collecting the information eh me look vlad my boots are in the shop this week getting new souls why don't we hire a flunky and get him to do the legwork for us okay i told him where he could hire the flunky and what he could have him do he sighed all right i'm going what are you going to be working on i thought for a minute a couple of things i said for one i'm going to try to think up a good reason for someone to suddenly decide to leave the council in such a way as to get the whole gereg down on his ass also i'm going to check in with marolin's spy ring and contact some of our own people i want to dig up as much information as i can and it wouldn't hurt to have both of us working on it after that i think i'll visit the lady alira cragar was about halfway out the door but as i finished speaking he stopped and turned around who he asked incredulous alera e chiron house of the dragon marolyn's cuz i know who she is i just couldn't believe i heard you straight why not ask the empress while you're at it i have a few questions about this guy that i want to check out and they're just the kind of thing she's good at why not we've been friends for quite a while boss she's a dragon they don't believe in assassination they consider it a crime if you go up to her and cragar i interrupted i never said that i was going to go up to her and say alira i'm trying to assassinate this guy how would you like to help set him up give me credit for a little finesse all right all we have to do is find some reasonable excuse for her to be interested in melar and she'll be happy to help out a reasonable excuse eh just out of curiosity do you have any idea how to find an excuse like that as a matter of fact i said nastily i do easiest thing in the world i just give you the assignment me damn it vlad you've already got me working on background as well as trying to figure out a non-existent event to provide an insufficient reason for a vanished gereg to do the impossible i can't sure you can i have confidence in you go suck yendi eggs how you'll think of something 5. there are dangers in eyesight too keen the only significant thing that happened the rest of the day was the arrival of a courier from the demon along with a rather impressive escort and several large purses the full sixty five thousand imperials it was official now i was committed i gave craig the purses to put into safe keeping and went home for the day my wife i'm sure knew that something was up but didn't ask about it i had no good reason for not mentioning anything to her but i didn't the next morning i found a small envelope on my desk i slid it open and several human or dragaran hairs fell out there was also a note which read from his pillow k i destroyed the note and reached out for psionic contact with my wife yes flawed are you busy sweetheart not really just practicing a little knife throwing hey i wish you wouldn't do that why not because you can already beat me seven out of ten times i'm going for eight out of ten you've been getting uppity lately what's up do you have some work for me no such luck drop on by and i'll tell you about it right away as soon as it's convenient okay i'll be over shortly fine meet me in the lab oh she said understanding and the link was broken i left word with my receptionist that i wasn't going to be taking any messages for the next two hours and walked down a few flights of stairs loyoche rode complacently on my left shoulder looking around as if he were conducting an inspection i came to a small room in the basement and unlocked the door in this building locks are next to useless as a means of actually keeping people out of places but they are effective as a way of saying private it was a smallish room with a low table in the exact center and several mounted lamps along the wall i kindled these in a corner of the room was a small chest the middle of the table held a brazier with a few unburned coals in it i dumped these out and got more from the chest i focused briefly on one of the candles and was rewarded by a flame i used it to light the others then put out the lamps i checked the time and found that i still had a little while before i could contact damar i checked the placement of the candles and watched the flickering shadows for a moment removing a few more items from the chest including a piece of incense i set them on the table next to the brazier placing the incense among the coals next i took a candle and held the flame next to a coal a moment of concentration and the fire spread evenly and quickly the smell of incense began to introduce itself to the various nooks and corners of the room soon cotty arrived and greeted me with a sunshine smile she was an easterner a small pretty woman with sir black hair and fluid graceful movements if she'd been a dragaran she might have been born into the house of the isola and taught them all something about courtliness and something about surprise as well her hands were small but strong and could produce knives out of nowhere her eyes burned sometimes with the impish delight of a mischievous child sometimes with the cold passion of a professional killer sometimes with the rage of a dragonlord going into battle caughty was one of the deadliest assassins i had ever met she and her partner then a defrocked dragonlord had made one of the most sought-after teams of killers in the gereg going under the somewhat melodramatic names of the sword and the dagger i had deemed it a high honor when an enemy of mine had considered me worth the expense of hiring the team to take me out i'd been quite surprised when i woke up afterwards and found that they hadn't managed to make it permanent for that thank craigar's alertness moreland's speed and fighting ability and elira's rather exceptional skill in healing and revivification some couples fall in love and end up trying to kill each other we'd done it the other way around caught he was also a competent witch though not quite as skilled as i i explained to her what was going to be needed then we made small talk boss yes lois i hate to interrupt like hell you do but it's time to contact damar already okay thanks well i suppose you're welcome i reached out thinking of damar concentrating remembering the feel of his mind yes he said he was one of the few people whose voice i could actually hear when we were in contact in the other cases it was because i knew them well enough for my imagination to supply the voice with demar it was simply the strength of the contact would you mind showing up i asked him we'd like to get started on this spell fine just let me okay i've got a fix on you i'll be right there give me a minute first so i can turn off some protections and alarms i don't want to have forty eleven things go off when you teleport in i ordered our teleport protections taken down for a few seconds dmr appeared in front of me floating cross-legged about three feet off the floor i rolled my eyes caughty shook her head sadly loyoch hissed demar shrugged and stretched his legs down stood up he left off the thunderclap in the lightning flash i told him should i try again never mind damar stood roughly seven feet three inches tall he had the sharp well-chiseled features of the house of the hawk although they were somewhat gentler softer than those of most hawklords i've met he was incredibly thin looking almost transparent it seemed that his eyes rarely focused giving him the appearance of looking past whatever he was observing or at something deep inside it we had been friends since the time i had almost killed him for mind probing one of my people he'd done it out of curiosity and i think he never understood why i objected so demar asked who is this you want located as a reg with luck i should have what you wanted for the trace will this do i handed him a small crystal i'd taken from the chest he inspected it carefully although i'm damned if i know what he was looking for he nodded and gave it back to me i've seen better he remarked but it will do i set it carefully down on the right side of the brazier i opened the envelope i'd gotten from kyra and removed about half of the dozen or so strands of hair these i set on top of the envelope on the left side of the brazier the others i would save in case i had to try the spell again it was interesting i reflected how much a witchcraft spell resembles an assassination as opposed to either of them being similar to sorcery to use sorcery all you do is reach out through your link to the imperial orb grab some power shape it and throw it with witchcraft however you have to plan carefully and precisely so that you don't end up searching around for some implement you need right at the moment of using it the room began to get smokey with the lingering scent of incense i took my position in front of the brazier caughty automatically stood to my right and i motioned damar to stand at my left and back i let my mind drift and linked up mentally with cauti it was not necessary for there to be physical contact between us for this to happen which is one reason why i like to work with her one of the clear advantages witchcraft enjoys over sorcery is that more than one witch can participate in a single spell i felt my power diminish and increase at the same time which is strange to say and even stranger to experience i laid a few leaves on the coals which obliged by making the proper hissing sounds they were large broad leaves from the heating tree which only grows out east they had been prepared by being soaked in purified water for a number of hours and by diverse enchantments a large gout of steam smoke rose up and caughty began chanting low and almost inaudible as the leaves began to blacken and burn my left hand found the envelope and the hairs i rolled them around on my fingertips for a moment i felt things start to happen the very first sign of a witchcraft spell starting to have any kind of effect is when certain senses begin to feel sharper in this case each hair felt distinct and unique to my fingertips and i could almost make out tiny details on each one i dropped them onto the burning leaves as cotty's chanting became more intense and i could almost pick out the words at that moment a sudden rush of power flooded my mind i felt giddy and i would certainly have lost my end of the spell if i had actually begun it a thought came into being and i heard demar's pseudo voice say mind if i help i didn't answer trying to cope with more psychic energy than i'd ever had at my disposal before i had a brief urge to answer no and hurled the energy back at him as hard as i could but it wouldn't have done more than hurt his feelings i observed my own anger at this unasked-for interference as if it were in a stranger any spell no matter how trivial it really is involves some degree of danger after all what you're really doing is building up a force of energy from your own mind and manipulating it as if it were something external there have been witches whose minds have been destroyed by mishandling this power demar of course couldn't know this he was just being his usual helpful meddlesome self i gritted my teeth and tried to use my anger to control the forces we had generated to direct them into the spell somewhere i felt loyoch fighting to hold onto his control and take up what i couldn't handle loyoch and i were so deeply linked that anything that happened to me would happen to him the link broadened more and more power flooded through it and i knew that between the two of us we'd either be able to handle it or our minds would be burned out i would have been as scared as a tecla if my anger hadn't blocked it and the rage i felt was sustained perhaps by my knowledge of the fear underlying it it hung in the balance and time stretched to both horizons i heard caughty as if from a great distance chanting steadily strongly although she must have felt the backwash of forces as much as i she was helping too i had to direct the energy into the spell or it would find release some other way i remember thinking at that moment demar if you've hurt my familiar's mind you are one dead dragaran loyoch was straining i could feel him right at his limit trying to absorb power control it channel it this is why witches have familiars i think he saved me i felt control had come and fought to hang on to it long enough to throw it into the spell i wanted to rush through the next part but resisted the temptation you do not rush through any phase of a witchcraft spell the hairs were burning they merged and combined into a part of the steam and smoke and they should still be tied to their owner i fought to identify exactly which isolated puff of smoke held the essence of those burning hairs and therefore was an unbreakable bond to my target i lifted my arms until my hands were at the outermost perimeter of the grayish white cloud i felt the four-way pull of energy me to demar to loyos to caughty and back i let it flow out through my hands until the smoke stopped rising the first visible sign that the spell was having an effect i held it there for an instant and slowly brought my hands closer together the smoke became more dense in front of me and i flung the energy i held at and through it there is a cry of charge and five thousand dragons come storming at the place the eastern army is entrenched making love to caughty that first time the moment of entry even more than the moment of release i wonder if she plans to kill me before we're finished and i don't really care the sir hero coming alone to tsur mountain sees sethra levode standing up before him ice flame alive in her hand a small girl child with big brown eyes looks at me and smiles the energy bolt visible as a black wave streaks toward me and i swing spellbreaker at it wondering whether it will work alira stands up before the shadow of chiron the conqueror there in the midst of the halls of judgment in the paths of the dead beyond death's gate falls and with it all at that moment i held in my mind everything i knew about mellar and all of my anger at daymar and above it all on top of everything my desire my will my hope i flung it at the small cloud of steam smoke rising from the brazier i reached through it beyond it within it toward the one who was tied to it caught he chanted strongly with no break in her voice in words i still couldn't quite make out loyoch within me part of my being was searching and hunting and damar away from us and yet a part of us too stood out as a beacon of light which i grabbed and shaped and pushed through i felt a response slowly very slowly an image formed in the smoke i forced energy into it as it began to grow distinct i forced myself to ignore the face itself which was only a distraction at this point and with agonizing slowness i lowered my right hand and began dropping control of the spell piece by minute fractional peace loyoche picked up the threads of control accepted them handled them exhaustion was my enemy then and i fought it back the gereg had taken the power and was handling it all by the green scales of barlin i allowed myself to look at the image for the first time as my right hand found the small crystal the face was middle-aged and showed features reminiscent of the house of the sir i carefully raised the crystal to eye level dropped the last threads of control over the spell and held my breath the image was steady i had trained loyos well caughty was no longer chanting she had done her part and was now just supplying power for the last stage of the spell i studied the image through the crystal closing my left eye it was of course distorted but that didn't matter the image appeared through it enough to be identified a moment of intense concentration i reached for the energy coty and demar were offering and burned the face into the container before my eye my right eye was blinded for a moment and i felt slightly dizzy as i bore down on it trying to use up all of the excess power we had built up i heard caughty sigh and relax i sagged against the back wall and loyo sagged against my neck i heard daymar sigh there was now a milky haze within the crystal i knew without trying it that by an act of will the haze could be cleared and mellar's face would appear in it more important there was now a connection between malar wherever he might be and the crystal the chances of his ever detecting this link were so small as to approach non-existent i nodded my satisfaction to coty as we stood there for a few minutes catching our collective breath after a time i blew out the candles and caughty lit the lamps along the wall i opened the vent to let the smoke out along with the smell of the incense which now seemed cloying and sweet the room brightened and i looked around damar had a distant look on his face and caught he seemed flushed and tired i wanted to order wine from someone upstairs but even the energy required for psionic contact seemed too much well i announced to the room in general i guess he didn't have any protections against witchcraft damar said that was very interesting vlad thanks for letting me come along i suddenly realized that he had no idea that he'd almost destroyed me with his help i tried to think of some way to tell him but gave up i'd just remember it in the future if he was ever around when i did more witchcraft i held out the crystal to him he accepted it he studied it carefully for a few seconds then nodded slowly well i asked can you pin down where he is from that i think so i'll try anyway how soon do you need it as soon as you can get it to me okay he said then casually by the way why are you looking for him anyway why do you want to know oh just curious that figured i'd rather not say if you don't mind i told him have it your way he said miffed going to kill him eh damar sorry i'll let you know when i found him it shouldn't take more than a day or so good i'll see you then or i add it as an afterthought you can just give it to craig fine he said nodding and vanished i forced my legs to work and pushed away from the wall i killed the lamps and helped coty out the door locked it we'd better get some food i said sounds good then a bath then about 20 years of sleep i wish i could take the time for the last two but i'm going to have to get back to work okay she said cheerfully i'll sleep for you too damned helpful of you leaning on each other we took the stairs one at a time i felt loyoch still lying against the side of my neck sleeping six true heroics must be carefully planned and strenuously avoided cotty and i shared a lunch at one of the restaurants that i had an interest in we ate slowly and allowed our strength to return the sense of physical exhaustion that accompanies witchcraft is usually very short-lived the psionic drain is longer by halfway through the meal i felt comfortable again and well rested on the other hand i still felt that it would be something of an effort even to achieve psionic contact i hoped no one would need to reach me during lunch we ate the meal in silence enjoying each other's company feeling no need to talk as we were finishing caught he said so you get work while i stay home and wither away from boredom you don't look withered to me i said checking and i don't remember you're asking me for help with that little matter last month she said i didn't need any help with that but this looks like something big i recognize the target i hope you're getting a reasonable price for him i told her what i was getting for him she raised her eyebrows nice who wants him i looked around the restaurant which was almost deserted i didn't like taking chances but caught he deserved an answer the whole bloody geraig wants him or will if and when they find out what did he do she asked he didn't start talking did he i shuddered no not that thank vera he ran off with nine million gold in council operating funds she looked stunned and was silent for a moment as she realized that i wasn't kidding when did this happen three days ago now i thought for a second then i was approached by the demon personally battled the giant gereg are you sure you aren't getting involved in more than you can handle no i answered cheerfully my husband the optimist she remarked i suppose you've already accepted that's right would i have gone to all of that trouble to locate him if i hadn't i suppose not i was just hoping loyoce woke up with a start looked around and jumped down from my shoulder he began working on the remains of my salmon ribs do you have any idea why you got the job she asked suddenly worried i could see her mind making the same jumps as mine had yes and it makes sense i explained the demon's reasoning to her and she seemed satisfied what do you think about subcontracting this one nope i said i'm too greedy if i subcontract it i won't be able to build you that castle she chuckled a little why i continued do you and no rathar want to do it not likely she answered dryly it sounds too dangerous and she's retired in any case besides she added rather nastily you couldn't afford us i laughed and lifted my glass to her lois moved over to her plate and began working on it i guess you're right i admitted i'll just have to stumble along on my own she grinned for a moment then turned serious actually vlad it is something of an honor to be given a job like this i nodded i guess it is to a degree but the demon is convinced that malar is out east somewhere he figures that i can operate better than a dragaran out there since you went into pseudo-retirement there aren't many humans who do work coty looked thoughtful for a moment what makes him think that malar is in the east i explained his thinking on the matter and caught he nodded that makes sense in a way but as you yourself said he'd stand out in the east like a lightning bolt i can't believe that malar is so naive that he'd think the house wouldn't go after him i thought this over you may be right i do have a few friends in the east i can check with in fact i was planning on trying to get hold of them if damar can't find out where he is i don't really see what else we can do but check out the demon's theory at this point there isn't anything i suppose she said but it makes me a little nervous do you have any idea how long melar's been planning this move if there was some way to figure that it would give us an idea of how hard he's going to be to track down i'm not sure it seems to me that it doesn't make sense unless it was a sudden spur of the moment kind of thing but cragar has an idea that he's been planning it all along from the minute he joined the gereg in fact if cragar is right he must have something planned for this she said in fact if it was that long he should have realized that someone would or at least could try to trace him using witchcraft if that were the case he would have some way to set up a block against it on the other hand she continued if he did plan it for that long and somehow couldn't block witchcraft or didn't think of it it may mean the demon underestimated his defenses what do you mean i asked well don't you think that in years you could come up with a sorcery block that even the left hand couldn't break down in the time they've had i thought that over for a long time he couldn't do it caughty it's always easier to break down a block than it is to set one up there is no way he could get the resources to put up a strong enough trace block to keep out the left hand the impression i got was that the demon had the best there is working on it i'd defy sethra levode to put up a block that would hold them out for more than a day then why haven't they found him she asked pointedly distance before they can break down the block they have to find the right general area that takes time even a standard teleport tray spell can be difficult if the person teleports far enough away that's why the demon is figuring the east using just standard tracing spells it could take years to find him if that's where he went i suppose you're right she conceded but i'm nervous about the thing me too i said and that isn't all i'm nervous about what else time the demon wants this done a lot faster than i like to work what it boils down to is that i have to make sure melar is taken out before everyone in the gereg finds out what he did and that could happen any day cauti shook her head that's bad flawed why by the demon goddess did you accept the job with a time limit i've never heard of one even being offered that way neither have i i took it that way because those were the terms and it isn't really a time limit as such although he implied it could come to that later it's just that i have to move as fast as i can that's bad enough she said you work fast you make mistakes and you can't afford to make a mistake i had to agree but you understand his position don't you if we don't get him we've just shot the reputation of the gereg council there won't be any way to keep house funds secure once people get the idea that it can be done hell i just put 65 000 gold into a room in the office and forgot about it i know it's safe because there isn't anyone who would dare touch it but once this gets started i shrugged and the other thing i went on is that he told me straight out that if one of his people finds malar before i do they aren't going to wait for me why should that bother you she asked you'll still have the payment sure that isn't the problem but think about it some claude goes up to melar to take him out who's it going to be it's not going to be a professional because the demons going to want to say hey you go nail this guy here and now and no professional will agree to work that way so it's going to be some two silver piece muscle or maybe a button man who thinks he can handle it himself then what then the guy bungles it that's what and i'm left trying to take melar out after he's been alerted oh sure the guy might succeed but he might not i don't trust amateurs caught he nodded i see the problem and i'm beginning to understand the reason for the price he's paying i stood up after making sure that loyos had finished his meal let's get going i may as well try to get something done with the rest of the day loyoch found a napkin carefully rubbed his face in it and joined us i didn't pay of course since i was a part owner but i did leave a rather healthy tip out of habit caudi stepped out of the door an instant before me and scanned the street she nodded and i came out there had been a time not too long before when that had saved my life loyal after all can't be everywhere we walked back to the office i kissed her goodbye at the door and went up while she headed back to our apartment then i sat down and began going over the day's business i noted with some satisfaction that craigar had found the punk who'd mugged the tecla the other day at a cost of only 400 gold or so and had carried out my instructions i destroyed the note and picked up a proposal that a new gambling establishment be opened by one of my button men who wanted to better himself i felt somewhat sympathetic i'd gotten started that way too don't do it vlad what craig would you cut it out give the guy at least another year to prove himself he's too new for that kind of trust i swear craig one of these days i'm going to demar reported in what i switched modes good craig shook his hand not good i asked he shouldn't have been able to tell this quickly that he couldn't find the guy did he change his mind about helping us no he found mellar all right excellent then what's the problem you aren't going to like this vlad come on craig are out with it the demon was wrong he didn't go out east after all really then where craig are slumped in his chair a little bit he put his head on his hand and shook his head he's at castle black he said slowly a piece at a time it sunk in that bastard i said softly that clever clever bastard the dragaran memory is long the empire has existed i don't know somewhere between two and two and a half hundred thousand years since the creation of the imperial orb back at the very beginning each of the seventeen houses has kept its records and the house of the lion has kept records of them all at my father's insistence i knew at least as much about the history of house gereg as annie dragaran born into the house gereg records do i will admit tend to be somewhat more scanty than those of other houses since anyone with enough pull or even enough gold can arrange to have what he wants deleted or even inserted nevertheless they are worth studying about ten thousand years ago nearly a full turn of the cycle before the interregnum the house of the athyra held the throne and the orb at this time for a reason which is lost to us a certain gereg decided that another gereg had to be removed he hired an assassin who traced the fellow to the keep of a noble of the house of the dragon now by gereg tradition with good solid reasons behind it that i might go into later the target would have been quite safe if he'd stayed in his own home no assassin will kill anyone in his house of course no one can stay in his house forever and if this gereg tried to hide that way he would have found it impossible to leave either by teleporting or by walking without being followed it could be of course that he didn't know he'd been marked for extinction usually one doesn't know until it's too late but for whatever reason he was in the home of a dragon lord the assassin knew that he couldn't put up a trace spell around the home of a neutral party the person would find out and almost certainly take offense which wouldn't be good for anyone there is however no gereg custom that says that you have to leave someone alone just because he's over at a friend's house the assassin waited long enough to be sure that the fellow wasn't planning to leave right away then he got in past the dragonlord's defenses and took care of his target and then the jaws of death's gate swung open the dragons it seemed didn't approve of assassins plying their trade on guests they demanded an apology from house gereg and got one then they demanded the assassin's head and instead got the head of their messenger returned to them in a basket they were just sending the dragons a message the dragons got the message and sent back one of their own somehow they found out who had issued the contract the day after the messenger was returned to them they raided the home of this fellow they killed him and his family and burned down his house two days later the dragon heir to the throne was found just outside the imperial palace with a six-inch spike driven through his head four bars along the lower chiron road all owned by the gereg and all housing some illegal activity upstairs or in back were raided and burned and many of the patrons were killed every gireg in all of them were killed morgante weapons were used on several the next day the warlord of the empire disappeared pieces of her were found over the next few days at the homes of various dragon nobles the house of the dragon declared that it intended to wipe house gereg out of the cycle the dragon said that they fully intended to kill each and every giragan existence house gereg responded by sending assassins after each dragon general who commanded more than a thousand troops and then began working its way down the e chiron line of the dragons was almost wiped out and for a while it seemed that the ebarrett line had been have you heard enough all in all it was a disaster the dragon gireg war lasted about six months at the end when the athyra emperor forced a meeting between the surviving dragon leaders and the gereg council and forced a peace treaty down both of their throats there had been some changes the best brains the best generals and the best warriors in the house of the dragon were dead and household was damn near out of business it is admitted by the gereg that they came out pretty much the losers this should be expected since they were at the bottom of the cycle and the dragons were near the top but still the dragons don't boast of the outcome it was fortunate that the athira rain was long and the phoenix rain even longer after that or there would have been real trouble having a house of the dragon strong enough to take the throne and the orb when their turn came following the phoenix it took the gereg the entire time until their turn at the throne nearly half the cycle away which worked out to several thousand years to achieve a stable business i summed it up as i went over the whole affair in my mind since that time no dragon has given sanctuary to azure egg and no gereg has attempted to assassinate anyone in the home of a dragon lord castle black was the home of lord marolan e drien of the house of the dragon how do you think he did it asked cragar how the hell should i know i said he found some way of tricking morolan into it that's for sure morolan would be the last person on dragara to deliberately let his home be used by gereg on the run do you think marolyn will kick him out once he finds out that he's been used that depends on exactly how malar tricked him but if maroland actually invited him there he'll never agree to allowing him to be harmed and he won't deny him sanctuary not unless malar sneaked in without an invitation craig nodded and sat quietly for a while thinking well vlad he said it last he can't stay there forever no he can stay there long enough though all he has to do is set up a new identity and figure out a good place to run we can't keep up a vigilance on him for hundreds of years and he can afford to wait that long if he has to and what's more i continued we can't even wait more than a few days once the information gets out we've blown it do you think we can put up a tracer net around castle black so we can at least find him if he leaves i shrugged i suspect marolyn wouldn't mind that he might even do it himself if he's as upset about being used this way as i expect him to be but we still have the time problem i don't suppose said craigar slowly that since marolan is a friend of yours he might just this once i don't even want to ask him oh i will if we get desperate enough but i don't think we have much of a chance of his agreeing he was a dragonlord long before he was a friend of mine do you think we might be able to make it look like an accident i thought about that for a long time no for one thing the demon wants it known that the gereg killed him that's sort of the point of doing it in the first place for another i'm not sure it's possible remember this has to be permanent by marolan's rules we can kill him as many times as we want as long as we make sure he can be and is revivified after people are killed every day at castle black but he hasn't had one permanent death there since he had the place built there's no point in having an accident that isn't permanent and do you have any idea how hard it would be to set up an accident so he's killed unrevivifiably what am i supposed to do have him trip and fall on a morganti dagger and another thing i went on if we were to kill him that way you can be damn sure that maroland would throw everything he had into an investigation he takes a lot of pride in his record and would probably feel dishonored if someone were to die even accidentally at castle black i shook my head it's really a strange place you know how many duels are fought there every day and not one of them on any terms other than no cuts to the head and revivification afterwards he'd check everything himself twenty times if malar had an accident and chances are good that he'd find out what happened all right said craig i'm convinced there's one more thing just to put this away or anything like it i'd better make it clear that i consider morolan a friend and i'm not going to let him get hurt like that if there's any way i can prevent it i owe him too much your rambling boss shut up loyoch i was done anyway craig shrugged okay you've convinced me so what can we do i don't know yet let me think about it and if you get any more ideas let me know oh i will someone has to do your thinking for you which reminds me yes one piece of good news out of this whole thing oh really what is it well now we have an excuse to talk to the lady alira after all she is marolyn's cousin and she is staying with him last i heard from what i know about her by the way she isn't going to be at all pleased that her cousin is being used by a gereg in fact she'll probably end up an ally if we work it right i took out a dagger and absolutely started flipping it as i thought that over not bad i agreed okay then i'll make seeing her and merle in my first priority cragar shook his head in mock sorrow i don't know boss first the witchcraft thing and now this business with alira i've been coming up with all the ideas around here i think you're slipping what the hell would you do without me anyway i'd have been dead a long time ago i said want to make something of it he laughed and got up nope not a thing what now tell me roland that i'm coming to see him when right away and get a sorcerer up here to do a teleport the way i'm feeling right now i don't trust my own spells craig walked out the door shaking his head sadly i put my dagger away and held out an arm to loyoche he flew over and landed on my shoulder i stood by the window and looked out over the streets below it was quiet and only moderately busy there were few street vendors in this part of town and not really a lot of traffic until nightfall by then i'd be at castle black some 200 miles to the northeast moreolan i knew was going to be mighty angry at someone unlike at sur however an angry dragon is unpredictable this could get really ugly boss said loyoch yeah i told him i know seven always speak politely to an enraged dragon my first reaction years before upon hearing about the castle black had been contempt for one thing black has been considered the color of sorcery for hundreds of thousands of years on dragara and it takes a bit of gall to name one's home that also of course is the fact that the castle floats it hangs there about a mile off the ground looking real impressive from a distance it was the only floating castle then in existence i should mention that there had been many floating castles before the interregnum i guess the spell isn't all that difficult if you care to put enough work into it in the first place the reason that they are currently out of vogue is the interregnum itself one day over four hundred years ago now sorcery stopped working just like that if you look around in the right places in the countryside you will still find broken husks and shattered remnants of what were once floating castles lord marolyn edrienne was born during the interregnum which he spent mostly in the east studying witchcraft this is very rare for a dragaran while the easterners were using the failure of dragaran sorcery to turn the tables and invade them for a change marolan was quietly building up skill and power then when zorika of the house of the phoenix came strolling out of the paths of the dead with the orb clutched in her greedy little hands marolan was right there helping her stomp her way to the throne after that he was instrumental in driving back the easterners and he helped cure the plagues they left behind them as remembrances of their visit all this conspired to make him more tolerant of easterners than is normal for a dragaran particularly a dragonlord that is partly how i ended up working for him on a permanent basis after we almost killed each other the first time we met little misunderstandings and all i slowly came to realize that the lord marolan was actually worthy of having a home called castle black not that he would have cared a tecla squeal what i thought of it in any case i also came to understand part of the reason behind the name you must understand that dragon lords particularly when they are young if you've been paying attention you'll note that marolan was under 500 tend to be how shall i put this excitable morola knew quite well that naming his keep what he did was somewhat pretentious and he also knew that from time to time people would mock him for it when that happened he would challenge them to duel and then take great delight in killing them lord marolan of the house of the dragon was one of damn few nobles who deserved the title i have seen him show most of the attributes one expects of a noble courtesy kindness honor i would also say that he is one of the most bloodthirsty bastards i have ever met i was welcomed to castle black as always by lady teldra of the house of the asola i don't know what moreland paid her for her services as reception committee and welcoming service lady teldra was tall beautiful and graceful as a tsur her eyes were as soft as an io rich's wing and her walk was smooth flowing and delicate as a court dancers she held herself with the relaxed confident poise of well of an isola i bowed low to her and she returned my bow along with a stream of meaningless pleasantries that made me very glad i had come and almost made me forget my mission she showed me to the library where morolan was seated going over some kind of large tome or ledger making notes as he went enter said marlon i did and bowed deeply to him he acknowledged what is it vlad problems i told him as lady teldra swished back to her position near the castle entrance what else do you think i'd be doing here you don't think i'd deign to visit you socially do you he permitted himself a smile and held out his right arm to loyoch who flew over to it and accepted some head scratching of course not he responded that was only an illusion of you at the party the other day exactly how clever of you to notice is alira around somewhere why the problem also involves her and for that matter sathra should be in on it too if she's available it would be easier if i could explain to all of you at once moreland's brows came together for a moment then he nodded to me okay alira is on her way and she'll mention it to sethra alira arrived almost immediately and marolyn and i stood for her she gave us each a small bow merlin was a bit tall for a dragaran his cousin alira however was the shortest dragaran i have ever known she could have been mistaken for a tall human bothered by this it was her habit to wear gowns that were too long and then make up the difference by levitating rather than walking there have been those who made disparaging remarks about this alira however was never one to hold a grudge she almost always revivified them afterwards both marolan and elira had something of the typical dragon facial features the high cheekbones rather thin faces and sharp brows of the house but there was little else in common moreland's hair was as black as mine whereas alira had golden hair rare in a dragaran and almost unheard of in a dragon lord her eyes were normally green another oddity but i've seen them change from green to gray and occasionally to ice blue when alira's eyes turn blue i'm very very careful around her sethra arrived just after her what can i tell you about sethra levode those who believe in her say she has lived ten thousand years some say twenty others say she is a myth call her life unnatural feel her undead breath color her black for sorcery color her gray for death she smiled at me we were all friends here moreland carried black wand which slew a thousand at the wall of barrett's tomb alera carried pathfinder which they say served a power higher than the empire sethra carried ice flame which embodied within it the power of tsur mountain i carried myself rather well thank you we all sat down making us equals and so vlad said merulan what's up my ire i told him his eyebrows arched knotted anyone i know i hope as a matter of fact at one of your guests indeed how dreadfully unfortunate for you both which one if i may ask do you know a certain lord milar gereg why yes it happens that i do might i inquire as to the circumstances giggle you're starting to sound like him boss shut up loyoce moreland shrugged he sent word to me a few weeks ago that he'd acquired a certain book i've been interested in and made an appointment to bring it by he arrived with it let me see three days ago now he has remained as my guest since that time i presume he actually had the book you presume correctly marolan indicated the tome he'd been reading as i entered i looked at the cover which bore a symbol i didn't recognize what is it i asked him he looked at me for a moment as if wondering whether i was trustworthy or perhaps whether he should allow himself to be questioned then he shrugged pre-empire sorcery he said i whistled in appreciation as well as surprise i glanced around the room quickly but none of the others seemed astonished by this revelation they had probably known all along i keep finding things out about people just when i think i know them does the empress know about this little hobby of yours i asked him he smiled a little somehow i keep forgetting to mention it to her how unlike you i remarked when he didn't say anything i asked how long have you been studying it pre-empire sorcery it's been rather an interest of mine for a hundred years or so in fact the empress undoubtedly knows it isn't all that much of a secret naturally i've never acknowledged it officially but it's a bit like owning a morganti blade if they need an excuse to harass a fellow they have one other than that they won't bother one about it unless of course one starts using it or unless one happens to be a gereg i muttered there is that isn't there i turned back to the main subject how did malar end up staying here after he delivered the book marolan looked thoughtful would you mind terribly if i asked what this is all about i glanced around the room again and saw that sethra and alira also seemed interested aliro was sitting on the couch an arm thrown casually across it a wine glass in her other hand where has she gotten it held so that the light from the large ceiling lamp reflected off it and made pretty patterns on her cheek she surveyed me coolly from under her eyelids her head tilted slightly sethra was looking at me steadily intently she had chosen a black upholstered chair which blended with her gown and her pale white undead skin shone out i felt a tension in her as if she had a feeling that something unpleasant was going on knowing sethra she probably did moreland sat at the other end of the couch from alira relaxed and yet looking as if you were posing for a painting i shook my head i'll tell you if you insist i said but i'd rather find out a little more first so i have a better idea of what i'm talking about or how much you feel like telling us asked alira sweetly i couldn't repress a smile i might point out said marilyn that if you want our help with anything you're going to have to give us essentially the whole story i'm aware of that i said moreland gathered in the others opinions with a glance alira shrugged with her wine glass as if it made no difference in the world to her sethra nodded once moreland turned back to me very well then vlad what exactly did you wish to know how was it that malar happened to stay here after delivering the book you aren't in the habit of inviting gereg into your home morolan permitted himself another smile with a few exceptions he said some of us are special shut up loyos count malar said merulan contacted me some four days ago he informed me that he had a volume that he thought i'd want and politely suggested that he drop by and deliver it i interrupted didn't it seem a bit odd that he'd hand it over himself rather than have a flunky deliver it yes it did occur to me as odd but after all such a book is illegal and i made the assumption that he didn't want anyone to know that he had it his employees after all were gereg how could he trust them he paused for a moment to see if i'd respond to the cut but i let it go by in any case he continued the count appeared to be a very polite fellow i did a bit of checking around on him and found him to be a trustworthy sort for a gerag after deciding that he probably wouldn't make any trouble i invited him to dine with me and a few other guests and he accepted i glanced quickly at alira and sethra sethra shook her head indicating that she hadn't been there alira was looking moderately interested she nodded i remember him she said he was dull with that ultimate condemnation i turned back to marolan who continued the dinner went well enough that i felt no compunction about inviting him to the general party i will admit that a few of my coarser guests who don't think well of gereg tried to give him trouble in one fashion or another but he was quite friendly and went out of his way to avoid problems so i gave him an invitation to stay here for 17 days if he cared to i will admit to being somewhat startled when he accepted but i assumed he wanted a short vacation or something what else did you wish to know i held up my hand asking for a moment's grace while i sorted out this new information could he what were the chances how sure could melr be do you have any idea i asked how he might have gotten his hands on the book in the first place maroland shook his head the one stipulation that he had for returning it was that i make no effort to find out how he got it you see at one time it held a place in my library it was as you would say lifted i might add this occurred before i started making improvements in my security system i nodded unfortunately it was all fitting in rather well didn't that make you suspicious i asked i assumed that it was a gereg who stole it of course but as you should be aware of more than i there are endless possibilities as to how this fellow could have received it legitimately if you will for example the fellow who had taken it could have found that he couldn't sell it safely and count malar might have done him a favor by making sure that i never found out the details of the crime jerich do tend to operate that way you know i knew how long ago was this book stolen how long let me think it would be about ten years ago now i believe damn i muttered to myself so kregar was right what is it vlad asked alira she was genuinely interested now i looked at the three of them how should i go about this i had a sudden urge to answer oh nothing get up and see how close i could get to the door before they stopped me i didn't really like the idea of having the three of them fly into a sudden rage with me being the bearer of bad tidings and all of course i didn't really think any of them would hurt me but i tried to think of an indirect approach and got nowhere suggestions loyoche tell him straight out boss then teleport i can't teleport fast enough serious suggestions loyoce nothing i had found a way to shut him up somehow my joy at this discovery was somewhat dimmed under the circumstances he's using you morolan i said flatly using me how pray tell milar is on the run from the gereg he's staying here for one reason only he knows that nosiaregg can touch him while he's a guest in a dragonlord's home moreland's brows came together i felt a storm brewing over the horizon are you quite certain of this he asked mildly i nodded i think i said slowly that if you were to do some checking you'd find that it was malar himself who took the book or else hired someone to take it it all fits in yes i'm sure i glanced over at alira she was staring at me roland with a look of shock on her face the cute dilettante who'd been sitting there seconds ago was gone of all the nerve she burst out oh he's nervy all right i told her sethra cut in vlad how could melare have known that he'd be invited to stay at castle black i sighed inwardly i had hoped that no one would ask me that that's no trick he must have done a study on marolan and found out what he'd have to do to receive an invitation i hate to say this merlin but you are rather predictable in certain matters moreland shot me a look of disgust but fortunately was not otherwise affected i noticed that sethra was gently stroking the hilt of ice flame i shuddered alira's eyes had turned gray marolan was looking grim he stood up and began pacing in front of us alira sethra and i held our peace after a couple of trips he said are you certain he knows that the zereg is after him he knows and merlin continued you are convinced that he would have been aware of this when he first contacted me merlin he planned it that way i'll go even further according to all the evidence we have he's been planning this whole thing for at least 10 years i see he shook his head slowly his hand came to rest on the hilt of black wand and i shuddered again after a time he said you know how i feel concerning treatment and safety of my guests do you not i nodded then you are no doubt aware that we cannot harm him in any way at least not until his 17 days are up i nodded again unless he leaves of his own free will i put in he looked at me suspiciously alira spoke then you aren't going to just let him get away with this are you she asked there was just the hint of an edge to her voice i suddenly wished that i had cragar's ability to be unnoticeable for today my dear cousin and 13 more days after he is perfectly safe here after that his voice suddenly turned cold and hard he's dead i can't give you the details i said but in thirteen days he will have irreparably damaged the gereg merolin shrugged and alira gave me a brushing off motion so what who cared about the gereg anyway but i noticed sethra nodding as if she understood and in 13 days she put in he'll be long gone alira gave a toss of her head and stood flinging her cloak to the side and bringing her hand down to pathfinder's hilt let him try to hide she said you are missing the point said sethra i'm not doubting that you and pathfinder will be able to track him down what i'm saying is that with all the time he's had he'll be able to at least make it difficult for you it could take you days to find him if for example he goes out east and in the meantime her voice took on a cutting edge he'll have succeeded in using a dragon to hide from the girag this hit the two of them and they didn't like it but there was something else that was bothering me alira i said are you sure that there isn't anything he could do to prevent you from finding him with pathfinder it doesn't make sense that he'd work for this long on such an intricate scheme only to let you and marolan track him down and kill him as you may recall she said i've only had pathfinder for a few months and it's hardly common knowledge that i have a great weapon at all it's something that he couldn't have counted on if i didn't have it he could have figured on escaping us i accepted that yes it was possible no matter how carefully you plan things there is always the chance that you could miss something important this is a risky business we're in alira turned to marolyn i don't think she said that we should wait the rest of those 17 days merlin turned away here it comes boss i know loyoce let's hope sether can handle it and wants to don't you see continued elira that this this geragh is trying to make you nothing more than a bodyguard from his own house i'm quite aware of this i assure you alira he answered softly and that doesn't bother you he's dishonoring the entire house of the dragon how dare he use a dragon lord ha said marolan how dare he use me but it's rather obvious that he does dare and equally obvious that he's gotten away with it marolyn's gaze was fixed on her he was either challenging her or waiting to see if she would challenge him either way i decided it didn't much matter he hasn't gotten away with it yet said elira grimly and what exactly does that mean asked marolan just what it sounds like he hasn't gotten away with anything he's assuming that just because he's a guest he can insult you as much as he wants and no one will touch him and he is correct said marolyn is he asked alira is he really are you sure quite sure said merlin alira matched stairs with him for a while then she said if you choose to ignore the insult to your honor that's your business but when an insult is given to the entire house of the dragon it's my business too nevertheless said merulan since the insult was delivered through me it is my right and my duty to avenge it don't you think alira smiled she sat back relaxed the very picture of one who's just had her worries removed oh good she said so you'll kill him after all why certainly i shall said marolan showing his teeth thirteen days from now i glanced at sethra to see how this was affecting her she hadn't yet said anything but the look on her face was far from pleasant i was hoping that she'd be willing and able to mediate between the two of them if things started to get pushed too far looking at her however made me wonder if she had any such inclination alira wasn't smiling anymore her hand gripped the hilt of pathfinder and her knuckles were white that she explained is doing nothing i will not permit azure egg to you will not touch him alira said marolan so long as i live no guest in my house need fear for his life i don't care who he is why he's here so long as i have extended him my welcome he may consider himself safe i have entertained my own blood enemies at my table and arranged more gaunty duels with them i have seen the necromancer speaking quietly to one who had been an enemy of hers for six incarnations i have seen sethra he gestured toward her sitting across from a sir lord who had sworn to destroy her i will not allow you my own cousin to cast my name in the mud to make me an oath breaker is that how you would preserve the honor of the house of the dragon oh speak on great protector of honor she said why not go all the way put up a poster outside the gerek barracks saying that you are always willing to protect anyone who wants to run from their hired killers he ignored the sarcasm and can you explain to me he said how it is that we can defend our honor as a house if each member does not honor even his own words alira shook her head and continued in a softer voice don't you see marolan that there is a difference between the codes of honor and of practice that have come down from the traditions of the house of the dragon and your own custom i'm not objecting to your having your little customs i think it's a fine thing but it isn't on the same level as the traditions of the house he nodded i understand that halira he said but it isn't just a custom i'm talking about it's an oath that i've sworn to make castle black a place of refuge it would be different if we were at say sir mountain she shook her head i just don't understand you of course you want to live by your oath but does that mean that you have to allow yourself and the house to be used by it he isn't just living under your oath he's abusing it that's true agreed merlin but i'm afraid he's correct there simply isn't any chance of my breaking it and he realizes that i'm rather surprised that you can't understand that i decided the time was right to intervene it seems to me that silence gereg snapped a lira this doesn't concern you i reconsidered it isn't that i can't understand it she went on to marolan it's just that i think your priorities are wrong he shrugged i'm sorry you feel that way it was the wrong thing to say alira rose and her eyes i saw had turned ice blue as it happens she said it wasn't my oath it was yours if you were no longer master of castle black we wouldn't have this problem would we and i don't recall anything in your oath that prevents a guest from attacking you morolan's hand was white where he gripped the hilt of black wand loyoche dived under my cloak i would have liked to do the same that's true said merlin evenly attack anyway sethra spoke for the first time gently need i point out the guest laws alira she didn't answer she stood gripping her blade and staring hard at merlin it occurred to me then that she didn't want to attack marolyn at all she wanted him to attack her i wasn't surprised at her next statement and guest laws alira said apply to all hosts even if they claim to be dragons but don't have the courage to avenge an insult done to all of us it almost worked but moreland stopped himself his tone matched the color of her eyes you may consider it fortunate that i have the rule i do and that you are as much a guest as this gerreg although it is clear that he knows far more than you about the courtesy a guest owes a host ha cried alira drawing pathfinder oh i said all right marolyn then i release you from your oath as regards me it doesn't matter anyway since i'd much rather be a dead dragon than a live tecla pathfinder stood out like a short green rod of light pulsating gently you don't seem to realize cousin he said that you don't have power over my oath now sethra stood up thanked the lords of judgment she hadn't drawn ice flame she calmly stepped between them you both lose she said neither of you has any intention of attacking the other and you both know it alira wants maroland to kill her which preserves her honor and breaks his oath so that he may as well go ahead and kill malar morolan wants alira to kill him being the one to break guest laws so she can then go ahead and kill malar herself i however have no intention of allowing either of you to be killed or dishonored so you may as well forget the provocations they stood that way for a moment then marolan allowed the ghost of a smile to pass over his lips alira did the same loyosh peeked out from under my cloak then resumed his position on my right shoulder seth returned to me vlad she said isn't it true that you are she stopped reconsidered and tried again that you know the person who is supposed to kill malar i rubbed my neck which i discovered had become rather tense and said dryly i expect i could put a hand on him good maybe we should all start trying to think of ways to help out this fellow instead of ways to goad ourselves into murdering each other maroland and elira both scowled at the idea of helping azureg then shrugged i gave a short prayer of thanks to vera that i'd thought of asking sethra to show up how much time is there that the assassin can wait asked sethra how the hell did she find out so much i asked myself for the millionth time since i'd known her maybe a few days i said all right what can we do to help i shrugged the only thing i can think of is just what alira thought of earlier tracing him with pathfinder the problem is that we need some way of getting him to leave soon enough without of course forcing him to alira took her seat again but moreland turned and headed for the door all things considered he said i don't think it quite proper that i include myself in this i trust you all he looked significantly at a lira not to violate my oath but i don't think it would be right for me to conspire against my own guest excuse me bowing he left alera picked up the threads of the conversation you mean trick him into leaving something like that i don't know maybe put a spell on him so he thinks he's safe can that be done sethra looked thoughtful but alira cut in before she could speak no that won't do she said i expect it could be done but in the first place marolan would detect it and in the second place we can't use any form of magic against him without violating moreland's oath by aedron's disaster i said you mean we can't trick him either no no said elira we're free to convince him to leave on his own even if we have to lie to do it but we can't use magic against him moreland doesn't see any difference between for instance using an energy bolt to blast him or using a mind implant to make him leave oh that's just charming i said i don't suppose either of you has any idea of how we're going to accomplish this they both shook their heads i stood up all right i'll be heading back to my office please keep thinking about it and let me know if you get anywhere they nodded and settled back deep in discussion i didn't think much of the chances of their actually coming up with something i mean they were both damn good at what they did but what they did wasn't assassination on the other hand i could be surprised in any case it was certainly better having them work with me than against me i bowed and left eight there is no such thing as sufficient preparation i returned to my office and allowed my stomach to recover from the after effects of the teleport after about ten minutes i contacted my secretary please ask craig to step in here i communicated but boss he went in five minutes ago i looked up and found him seated in his usual place and looking innocent never mind i shook my head i really wish you'd stop doing that doing what i signed craig alira is willing to help us good do you have a plan yet no only the start of one but alira and by the way sethra levode are trying to come up with the rest of it he looked impressed sethra not bad what happened nothing but just barely eh i gave him a report on what had occurred so i concluded now we need to figure out how we're going to get melare to leave early well he said thoughtfully you could ask the demon oh sure and if he doesn't have any ideas i'll ask the empress and what's wrong with asking the demon since you're going to be talking to him anyway why not take the uh i'm going to what the demon wants to meet with you right away a message came in just before you did what does he want to meet with me about he didn't say maybe he's come across some information information he could just send over damn it he'd better not be jogging my sword arm he knows better than that sure he does snorted craig r but what the hell are you going to do about it if he decides to do it anyway there is that isn't there he nodded when and where no let me guess same time and place right half right same place but noon noon but isn't it already i stopped concentrated a moment and got the time by the great sea of chaos it was barely half an hour before noon that whole conversation had taken less than an hour vera that means he's buying me lunch doesn't it right and it also means that we don't really have time to set up something in case he's set up something right again you know vlad we'd be within our rights to just refuse to meet with him you aren't bound by something like this do you think that's a good idea he thought for a minute then shook his head neither do i i said well would you like me to put someone in there as a guest we could arrange for one or two people no he'd pick up on it and we can't let that happen at this point it would indicate that we don't trust him which we don't of course but yeah i know he shrugged and changed the subject about this business with alira and sethra do you have any ideas on how we're going to convince millar to leave castle black well i said we could invite him to a business meeting craig chuckled next idea he said i don't know that's been the problem from the beginning hasn't it i shrugged maybe something will come up by the way if there's anything more we can do in terms of digging into malar's background let's do it i'd dearly love to find a weak spot in him just about now he nodded it would be nice wouldn't it damn it he came from somewhere the information we got from the demon doesn't start until he joined the gereg we don't know a damned thing before then i know but how are we supposed to dig up more than the demon could i don't know yes i do alira that was what i'd wanted her help with in the first place and then when things got hot over there i never thought about asking her asking her what well among other things she specializes in genetic research so so tell me what house was melar born into i assume zereg what makes you think differently i don't but we have no reason to be sure if it is gereg there's a chance that alira could lead us to his parents and we could start digging there if not that would tell us something worthwhile in itself and might lead us in other directions okay i guess that isn't something the demon would have been able to check out are you going to contact her yourself or do you want me to set up another appointment i thought it over before answering you set it up i decided as long as this mess continues we do everything formally make it for this evening early if possible if i'm still alive ask her to check him over okay i'll take care of it if you're dead i'll apologize to her for you oh good that's a great load off my mind once again i had my back to the door my right arm was next to my wine glass i could get a dagger from my left arm sheath and throw it well enough to hit a moving wine cork from 15 feet away in less than half a second loyoch kept his eyes fixed on the door i was keenly aware that if i were indeed about to be removed none of these things would really give me enough of an edge my palms however were dry there were three reasons for this first i had been in many situations before where i might suddenly have to move at top speed to save my life second i really didn't think it very likely that the demon was going to take me out there are simpler ways to do it and i was pretty sure by this time that everything was legitimate and third i continually wiped my hands on the legs of my breaches here he comes boss alone two bodyguards but they're waiting by the door the demon slid smoothly into the seat across from me good afternoon he said how are things coming they're coming i recommend the salmon in garlic butter as you say he signaled over a waiter who took our orders with enough respect to show that he knew who i at least was the demon picked out a light nairoth wine to go along with it showing that he also knew something about eating things are looking a little more urgent now flawed may i call you vlad he added tell him no boss of course i chuckled i'll call you demon he smiled without showing how bored he must have been at the remark as i was saying things are starting to look serious it seems that a few too many people know already the best sorceresses in the left hand have figured out that someone big is interested in finding malar but there wasn't any way to avoid that on the other hand there are a few others who are wondering about some cutbacks we've had to make in our operations all it's going to take is for someone to start putting the two things together and then things get unpleasant real fast so are you i stopped as the soup came out of reflex i passed my left hand over it briefly but there wasn't any poison of course poison is clumsy and unpredictable and few dragarans knew enough about the metabolism of an easterner to leave me seriously worried about it i continued when the waiter left are you saying you want me to push it a bit i held down my annoyance the last thing this side of deathgate i wanted just then was for the demon to get the idea that i was upset as much as you can without risking mistakes but that wasn't really what i wanted i know you're moving as fast as you can sure he did the soup was flat i decided we've learned something that may interest you he continued i waited melar is holed up in castle black he looked for a reaction from me and when he didn't get one continued our sorcerers broke through about two hours ago and i got in touch with your people right away so you can forget checking out east the reason we couldn't find him for so long was because castle black is close to 200 miles from audra lanka but of course you know that you work for marolan right work for him no i'm on his payroll as a security consultant nothing more he nodded he worked on his soup for a while then you didn't seem surprised when i told you where he was thank you very much i said the demon let me know that he had teeth and raised his glass in salute smiling say the sages comes from an early form of bearing the teeth while gereg don't bear their teeth jereg do did you know asked the demon bluntly i nodded i'm impressed he said you move quickly i continued to wait while finishing up my soup i still didn't know why he was here but i was quite sure that it wasn't in order to compliment me on my information sources or to give me information he could have had sent over by a courier he picked up his wine glass and looked into it swirled it around a little and sipped it crazily he suddenly reminded me of the necromancer vlad he said i think we may have a possible conflict of interest developing here indeed well it is known that you are a friend of mirolan now marolan is harboring malar it would seem that our goals and his goals might not run along the same paths i still didn't say anything the waiter showed up with the main course and i checked it and started in the demon pretended not to notice my gesture i pretended not to notice when he did the same thing he continued after swallowing and making the obligatory murmur of satisfaction things could get very unpleasant for marolyn i can't imagine how i said unless you plan to start another dragon gereg war and malar no matter what he did can't be worth that much now it was the demon who said nothing i got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach i said slowly he can't be worth another dragon gereg war he still said nothing i shook my head would he really go ahead and try to nail melar right in morolan's gods he was saying that he would he'd bring every dragon on dragara down on our heads this could be worse than the last one it was the reign of the phoenix which made the dragons correspondingly higher on the cycle the higher a house is the more fate tends to favor it i don't know the why or how of that but it works that way the demon knew it too why i asked him at this point he said slowly i don't think that there is any need to start such a war i think that it can be worked around which is why i'm talking to you but i will say this if i'm wrong and the only options i can see are letting melar get away with this or starting another war i'll start the war why because if we have a war things will get bad yes very bad but then it will be over we know what to expect this time and we'll be ready for it oh sure they'll hurt us perhaps badly but we will recover eventually in a few thousand years on the other hand if milar gets away with this there won't be an end to it ever as long as house gereg lasts we'll have to contend with thieves plotting after our funds will be crippled forever his eyes became thin lines and i saw his teeth clench for a moment i built us up after adron's disaster i made a dispirited broken house into a viable business again i'm willing to see my work set back a thousand years or ten thousand years if i have to but i'm not willing to see us weakened forever he sat back i let his remarks sink in the worst thing was he was right if i were in his position i would probably find myself making the same decision i shook my head you're right i told him we have a conflict of interest if you give me enough time i'll finish my work but i'm not going to let you nail someone in castle black i'm sorry but that's how it is he nodded thoughtfully how much time do you need i don't know as soon as he leaves castle black i can get him but i haven't come up with a way to get him to leave yet will two days do it i thought that over maybe i said finally probably not he nodded and was silent i used a piece of only slightly stale bread to get the rest of the garlic butter i never said it was a good restaurant for eating in and asked him what is your idea for avoiding the dragon gereg war he shook his head slowly he wasn't going to give me any more information about that instead he signaled the waiter over and paid him i'm sorry he told me as the waiter walked away we'll have to do it without your cooperation you could have been very helpful he left the table and walked toward the door the waiter i noticed was returning with the change i absently waved him away that's when it hit me the demon would have realized that this outcome was possible but wanted to give me a chance to save myself oh i felt the waves of panic start up but forced them down i wouldn't leave this place i decided until help arrived i started to reach out for contact with craig the waiter hadn't caught my signal and was still approaching i started to gesture him away again when loyo screamed a warning into my mind i caught the flicker of motion almost at the same time i pushed the table away from me and reached for a dagger at the same moment that loyos left my shoulder to attack but i also knew in that instant that both of us would be too late the timing had been perfect the setup professional i turned hoping to at least get the assassin there was a gurgling sound as i turned and stood up instead of lunging at me the waiter fell against me then continued on to the floor there was a large kitchen cleaver in his hand and the point of a dagger sticking out of his throat i looked around the room as the screams started it took me a while but i finally located cragar seated at a table a few feet from mine he stood up and walked over to me i felt myself start trembling but i didn't allow myself to fall back into my chair until i was sure the demon had left he had his bodyguards were gone probably having been out the door before the assassin's body had fallen wise of course any of his people left here were dead loyos returned to my shoulder and i felt him glancing around the room as if to make any guilty party cower in shame there would be none of them left now he'd taken his best shot and it had almost worked i sat down and trembled for a while thanks craigar were you there the whole time yeah as a matter of fact you looked right through me a couple of times so did the demon so did the waiters he added sourly cragar the next time you feel like ignoring my orders do it he gave me his cragar smile vlad he said never trust anyone who calls himself a demon i'll remember that the imperial guards would be showing up in a few minutes and there were a few things i had to get done before they arrived i was still trembling with unused adrenaline as i walked over to the kitchen through it and into the back office the owner a dragara named nephron was sitting behind his desk he had been my partner in this place since i'd taken half ownership of it in exchange for cancelling out a rather impressive sum he owed me i suppose he had no real reason to love me but still i walked in and he looked at me as if he were seeing death personified which of course he was cragar was behind me and stopped at the door to make sure no one came in to ask nephron to sign for any order of parsley or something i noticed he was trembling good i no longer was how much did he pay you dead man gulp pay me who you know i said conversationally you've been a rotten gambler for as long as i've known you that's what got you into this in the first place now how much did he pay you but no one i reached forward suddenly and grabbed his throat with my left hand i felt my lips drawing up into a classic chireg sneer you are the only one besides me authorized to hire anyone in this place there was a new waiter here today i didn't hire him therefore you did it happened that he was an assassin as a waiter he was even worse than the fools you usually hire to drive customers away now i think his main qualifications as a waiter were the gold imperials you got for hiring him i want to know how much he tried to shake his head in denial but i was holding it too tightly he started to speak the denial but i squeezed that option shut he tried to swallow i relaxed enough to let him he opened his mouth closed it again and then opened it and said i don't know what you i discovered with some surprise that i had never resheathed the dagger that i'd drawn when first attacked it was a nice tool mostly point and about seven inches long it fitted well into my right hand which is moderately rare for a trigar and weapon i used it to poke him in the sternum a small spot of blood appeared soaking through the white chef's garment he gave a small scream and seemed about to pass out i was strongly reminded of our first conversation when i'd let him know that i was his new partner and carefully outlined what would happen if the partnership didn't work out his house was jagala but he was doing a good tecla imitation he nodded then and managed to hand me a purse from next to him i didn't touch it how much is in it i asked he gurgled and said uh the thousand gold me lord i laughed shortly that isn't even enough to buy me out i said who approached you was it the assassin the demon or a flunky he closed his eyes as if he wanted me to disappear i'd oblige him momentarily it was the demon he said in a whisper really i said well i'm flattered that he takes such an interest in me he started whimpering and he guaranteed that i'd be dead right he nodded miserably and he guaranteed protection he nodded again i shook my head sadly i called cragar in to teleport us back to the office he glanced at the body his face expressionless shame about that fellow killing himself isn't it he said i had to agree any sign of guards no they'll get here eventually but no one is in any hurry to call them and this isn't their favorite neighborhood to patrol good let's get back home he started working the teleport i turned back to the body never i told it trust anyone who calls himself a demon the walls vanished around us nine you can't put it together again unless you've torn it apart first over the years i have developed a ritual that i go through after an attempt has been made to assassinate me first i return to my office by the fastest available means then i sit at my desk and stare off into space for a little while after that i get very very sick then i return to my desk and shake for a long time some time in there while i'm alone and shaking cotty shows up and she takes me home if i haven't eaten she feeds me if it is practical she puts me to bed this was the fourth time that i had almost had my tail of years snipped at the buttocks it wasn't possible for me to sleep this time since alira was expecting me when i had recovered sufficiently to actually move i went into the back room to do the teleport i am a good enough sorcerer to do it myself when i have to although generally i don't bother this time i didn't feel like calling in anyone else it wasn't that i didn't trust them well maybe it was i took out my enchanted dagger a cheap over-the-counter enchanted dagger but better than plain steel and began carefully drawing the diagrams and symbols that aren't at all necessary for a teleport but do help settle one's mind down when one is feeling that one's magic might not be all it ought to be caught he kissed me before i left and seemed to hang on to me a bit more than she had to or maybe not i was feeling extraordinarily sensitive just at the moment the teleport worked smoothly and left me in the courtyard i spun quickly as i arrived almost losing lunch in the process no there wasn't anyone behind me i walked toward the great double doors of the castle looking carefully around the doors swung open before me and i had to repress an urge to dive away from them boss would you settle down no no one is going to attack you at castle black so what so what's the point in being so jumpy it makes me feel better well it bothers hell out of me tough take it easy all right i'll take care of you i'm not doubting you it's just that i feel like being jumpy all right not really then lump it he was right however i resolved to relax just a bit as i nodded to lady teldra she pretended that there was nothing odd in my having her walk in front of me by five paces i trusted lady teldra of course but this could be an imposter after all well it could couldn't it i found myself in front of alera's chambers lady teldra bowed to me and left i clapped and alira called to me to come in i opened the door letting it swing fully open while stepping to the side nothing came out at me so i risked a look inside alira was sitting by the back of the bed staring off into space i noted that curled up as she was she could still draw a pathfinder i scanned the room carefully entering i moved a chair so my back was against the wall alira's eyes focused on me and she looked puzzled is something wrong vlad no she looked bemused then quizzical you're quite sure she said i nodded if i were going to take someone out from that position i thought how would i go about it let's see alera raised her hand suddenly and i recognized the gesture as the casting of a spell loyoch hissed with indignation as i hit the floor rolling and spellbreaker snapped out i didn't feel any of the tingling that normally accompanies spellbreakers intercepting magic aimed at me however i lay there looking at alira who was watching me carefully what's gotten into you anyway asked alira what was that spell i wanted to check your genetic background she said dryly i thought i'd look for some latent tecla jeans i cracked up this just broke me up completely i sat on the floor my body shaking with laughter and felt tears streamed down my face alira i'm sure was trying to figure out whether to join me or to cure me i settled down finally feeling much better i got back into the chair and caught my breath i wiped the tears from my face still chuckling loyos flew quickly over to alira licked her right ear and returned to my shoulder thanks i said that helped what was the problem anyway i shook my head then shrugged someone just tried to kill me i explained she looked more puzzled than ever so that almost broke me up again but i contained it with great effort it's my latent tecla genes i said i see gods what a nightmare i was pulling out of it though i started to think about business again i had to make sure that mallard didn't go through what i'd just gone through were you able to do whatever it is you do on malar i asked she nodded did he detect it no chance she said good and did you learn anything of interest she looked strange again just as she had when i first walked in vlad she asked me what made you ask about his jeans i mean it is a little specialty of mine but everyone has his little specialties why did you happen to ask about this i shrugged i haven't been able to learn anything about his background and i thought you might be able to learn something about his parents that would help it isn't something that's easily found out you know normally i don't have any trouble finding everything i need to about a person but this guy isn't normal i'll agree with you there she said fervently what does that mean you found something she nodded significantly in the direction of the wine cabinet i rose and fetched a bottle of eyelure dessert wine and presented it to her she held it for a moment did a quick spell to chill it down and returned it to me i opened it and poured she sipped hers i found out something all right you're sure he didn't detect it he had no protection spells up and it's really quite easy to do good so what is it she shook her head gods but it's weird what is will you tell me already you're as bad as loyoce remember that crack next time you roll over in bed and find a dead tecla on your pillow i ignored him alira didn't rise to the bait she just shook her head in puzzlement vlad she said slowly he has dragon jeans i digested that you're sure no possible doubt none if i'd wanted to take more time i could have told you which line of the dragons but that isn't all he's a crossbreed indeed was all i said crossbreeds were rare and almost never accepted by any house except the gereg on the other hand they had an easier time of it than easterners so i wasn't about to get all teary-eyed for the fellow she nodded he's clearly got three houses in his jeans dragon and sir on one side and jereg on the other hmm i see i wasn't aware that you could identify your egg jeans as such i'd thought that they were just a mishmash of all the other houses she smiled if you get a mishmash as you put it together for enough generations it becomes identifiable as something in and of itself i shook my head this is all beyond me anyway i don't even know how you can pick out a gene much less recognize it as being associated with a particular house she shrugged it's something like a mind probe she said except that you aren't looking for the mind and of course you have to go much deeper that's why it's so hard to detect in fact anyone can tell you when his mind is being examined unless the examiner is an expert but having your finger mind probed is a bit trickier to spot this image came to mind of the empress with the orb circling her head holding up a severed finger and saying now talk what till have you been in i chuckled and missed alera's next statement i'm sorry alira what was that i said that determining a person's house isn't hard at all if you know what you're looking for surely you realize that each animal is different and wait a minute each animal is different sure but we aren't talking about animals we're talking about regards i repressed a nasty remark at that point since alira didn't seem to be in the right mood for it oh come on vlad she answered the names of the houses aren't accidents what do you mean okay for instance how do you suppose the house of the dragon got its name i guess i've always assumed it was because you have characters similar to that of dragons you're bad tempered reptilian used to getting your own way i guess i asked for that eater of carrion but you're wrong since i'm of the house of the dragon it means that if you go back a few hundred thousand generations you'll find actual dragons in my lineage and you're proud of this i thought but didn't say i must have looked as shocked as i felt though because she said i thought you realized this it's the first i've heard of it i assure you do you mean for example that creatures are descended from actual creatures she looked puzzled not descended exactly it's a bit more complicated than that all dragarans are initially of the same stock but things changed when how shall i put this all right certain uh beings once ruled on dragara they were a race called genoene they used the dragaran race and i might add the easterners as stocked practice genetic experimentation when they left the dragarans divided into tribes based on natural kinship and the houses were formed from this after the formation of the empire by chiron the conqueror she didn't add my ancestor but i felt it anyway the experiments they did on dragarans involved using some of the wildlife of the area as a gene pool i interrupted but dragarans can't actually breed with these various animals can they no well then how we don't really know how they went about it that's one thing i've been researching myself and i haven't solved it yet what did these janine genuine genuine what did these genuine do to easterners we aren't really sure to tell you the truth one popular theory is that they bred in psionic ability hmm fascinating alira has it ever occurred to you that dragarans and easterners could be of the same stock originally don't be absurd she said sharply trigarans and easterners can't interbreed in fact there are some theories which claim that easterners aren't native to dragara at all but were brought in by the genoene from somewhere else to use as controls for their tests controls yes they gave the easterners psionic abilities equal to or almost equal to that of dragarans then they started messing around with trigarans and sat back to see what the two races would do to each other i shuddered do you mean that these genuine might still be around watching us no she said flatly they're gone not all of them are destroyed but they rarely come to draegara anymore and when they do they can't dominate us as they did long ago in fact sethra levaud fought with and destroyed one only a few years ago my mind flashed back to my first meeting with sethra she had looked a bit worried and said i can't leave sir mountain just now and later she had looked exhausted as if she'd been in a fight one more old mystery cleared up how were they destroyed did the dragarans turn on them she shook her head they had other interests besides genetics one of them was the study of chaos we'll probably never know exactly what happened but in essence an experiment got out of control or else an argument came up between some of them or something and boom we have a great sea of amorphia a few new gods and no more genuine so much i decided for my history lesson for today i couldn't deny being interested however it wasn't really my history but it had some kind of fascination for me nevertheless that sounds remarkably like what happened to adron on a smaller scale a few years back you know the thing that made the sea of chaos up north the interregnum alira she was looking at me strangely and not saying anything a light broke through say i said that's what pre-empire sorcery is the sorcery of the genoene i stopped long enough to shudder as i realized the implications no wonder the empire doesn't like people studying it alira nodded to be more precise pre-empire sorcery is direct manipulation of raw chaos bending it to one's will i found myself shuddering again it sounds rather dangerous she shrugged but didn't say more of course she would see it a little differently alira's father i had learned was none other than adron himself who had accidentally blown up the old city of dragara and created a sea of amorphia on its site i hope i said that moreland isn't planning on doing another number like your father did he couldn't why not if he's using pre-empire sorcery she grimaced prettily i'll correct what i said before pre-empire sorcery is not exactly direct manipulation of chaos it's one step removed direct manipulation is something else again and that's what adron was doing he had the ability to use in fact the ability to create a mafia if you combine that with the skills of pre-empire sorcery and maroland doesn't have the skill to create a morphia poor fellow how can he live without it alira chuckled it isn't a skill one can learn it goes back to jeans again so far as i know it is only the e chiron line of the house of the dragon that holds the ability although it is said that chiron himself never used it i wonder i said how genetic heritage interacts with reincarnation of the soul oddly said alira e chiron oh so anyway that explains where the dragaran houses come from i'm surprised that the genuine wasted their time breeding an animal like the gereg into some dragarans i said that's another one i owe you boss shut up loyoch oh said alira but they didn't hey they played around with geregs and found a way to put human level intelligence into a brain the size of a red nut but they never put any gereg jeans into regards there loyoche you should feel grateful to the genuine for shut up boss but i thought you said the gereg is the exception they didn't start out as a tribe the way the others did then how okay we have to go back to the days when the empire was first being formed in fact we have to go back even further as far as we know there were originally about 30 distinct tribes of dragarans we don't know the exact number since there were no records being kept back then eventually many of them died off finally there were 16 tribes left well 15 plus a tribe of the tecla which really didn't do much of anything they invented agriculture i cut in that's something she brushed it aside the tribes were called together or parts of each tribe by chiron the conqueror and a union of some of the best shamans of the time and they got together to drive the easterners out of some of the better lands for farming i said now in addition to the tribes there were a lot of outcasts many of them came from the tribe of the dragon probably because the dragons had higher standards than the others she tossed her head as she said this i let it go by anyway she continued there were a lot of outcasts mostly living in small groups while the other tribes were coming together under chiron a certain ex-dragon named dholivar managed to unite most of these independent groups primarily by killing any of the leaders who didn't agree with the idea so they got together and i guess more sarcastically than anything else they began calling themselves the tribe of the they lived mostly off the other tribes stealing looting and then running off they even had a few shamans why didn't the other tribes get together to wipe them out i asked she shrugged a lot of the tribes wanted to but kyron needed scouts and spies for the war against the easterners and the geregs were obviously the only ones who could manage it properly why did the geregs agree to help i guess she remarked dryly dolovar decided it was preferable to being wiped out he met with chiron before the great march started and got an agreement that if his tribe helped out they would be included in the empire when it was over i see so that's how the gereg became part of the cycle interesting yes it also ended up killing chiron what did the bargain the strain of forcing the tribes to adhere to the bargain after the fighting was over and the other tribes no longer saw that the gereg could be of any value to them he was eventually killed by a group of lyon warriors and shamans who decided that he was responsible for some of the problems the zerex brought to the empire so i said we owe it all to chiron the conqueror eh chiron she agreed and this gereg chieftain named dholivar who forced the deal in the first place and then forced the others in his tribe to agree to it why is it i wonder that i've never heard of this gereg chieftain i don't know of any house records on him and you'd think he'd be considered some kind of hero oh you can find him if you dig enough as you know better than i the gereg isn't too concerned with heroes the lyons have records of him is that how you found out all this she shook her head no i learned a lot of it talking to sethra and some i remembered of course what alira nodded sethra was there as sethra i've heard her age given at ten thousand years well that's wrong it's off by a factor of twenty she is quite literally older than the empire alira that's impossible two hundred thousand years that's ridiculous tell it to sir mountain but and you how could you remember don't be a fool vlad regression of course in my case it's a memory of past lives did you think reincarnation was just a myth or a religious belief like you easterners have her eyes were glowing strangely as i fought to digest this new information i've seen it through my own eyes lived it again i was there vlad when chiron was backed into a corner by an ex-dragon named dholivar who had been chiron's brother before he shamed himself and the whole tribe dolavar was tortured and expelled i share the guilt there too as does sethra sethra was supposed to hamstring the yendi but she missed deliberately i saw but i didn't say anything perhaps that makes me responsible for my brother's death later i don't know your brother this was too much my brother she repeated we started out as one family chiron dolivar and i she turned fully toward me and i felt a rushing in my ears as i listened to her spin tales that i couldn't quite dismiss as mad ravings or myths i she said was a shaman in that life and i think i was a good one too i was a shaman and chiron was a warrior he is still there vlad in the paths of the dead i've spoken to him you recognized me three of us the shaman the warrior and the traitor by the time dolovar betrayed us we no longer considered him a brother he was a gereg down to his soul his soul she repeated trailing off yes she continued odd is the right way to describe the way heredity of the body interacts with reincarnation of the soul chiron was never reincarnated i have been born into a body descended from the brother of my soul and you she gave me a look that i couldn't interpret but i suddenly knew what was coming i wanted to scream at her not to say it but throughout the millennia alira has always been just a little faster than me you became an easterner brother ten one man's mistake is another man's opportunity one damn thing after another i returned to my office and looked at nothing in particular for a while i needed time probably days to get adjusted to this information instead i had about ten minutes lord said cragar hey vlad i looked up after a moment i focused in on cragar who was sitting opposite me and looking worried what is it i asked him that's what i was wondering huh is something wrong yes no hell craig i don't know sounds serious he said it is my whole world has just been flipped around and i haven't sorted it out yet i leaned toward him then and grabbed his jerkin just one thing old friend if you value your sanity never but never have a deep heart-to-heart talk with alira sounds really serious yeah we sat in silence for a moment then i said craig yeah boss i bit my lip i'd never broached this subject before but how did you feel when you were kicked out of the house of the dragon relieved he said with no hesitation why i sighed never mind i tried to force the mood and the contemplation from me and almost succeeded what's on your mind craig i was wondering if you found out anything he said in all innocence did i find out anything i asked myself the question began to reverberate in my head and i heard myself laughing i saw craig are giving me a funny look worried i kept laughing i tried to stop but couldn't ha did i learn anything craig leaned across the desk and slapped me once hard hey boss said loyoch cut it out i sobered up easy for you to say i told him you haven't just learned that you once were everything you hate the very kind of person you despise so you haven't just learned that you were supposed to be a blithering idiot except that some pseudo god decided to have a little fun with your ancestors i realized that he had a point i turned to cragar i'm all right now thanks he still looked worried are you sure no your oldest eyes great so if you can avoid having hysterics again what did you learn i almost did have hysterics again but controlled myself before cragar could slap me again what had i learned well i wasn't going to tell him that or that uh or that either what did that leave oh of course i learned that malar is the product of three houses i said i gave him a report on that part of the discussion he pondered the information now that he said is interesting it sir eh and a dragon hmm okay why don't you see what you can dig up about the tsu side and i'll work on the dragons i think it would make more sense to do it the other way around since i have some connections in the dragons he looked at me closely are you quite sure he said that you want to use those connections just at the moment oh i thought about that and nodded okay i'll check that sir records what do you think we should look for i'm not sure he said then he cocked his head for a minute and seemed to be thinking about something or else he was in psionic contact i waited vlad he said do you have any idea what it's like to be a crossbreed i know it isn't as bad as being an easterner isn't it what are you getting at you know damn well what i've had to put up with oh sure mellar isn't going to have all the problems you have or had but suppose he inherited the true spirit of each house do you have any idea how frustrating it would be for atsur to be denied his place in the lists of heroes of the house if he was good enough to earn it or a dragon denied the right to command all the troops he was competent to lead the only house that would take him is us and hell vlad there are even some gereg that would make him eat dragon dung sure vlad you have it worse in fact but he can't help but feel that he's entitled to better and i'm not you know what i mean i suppose i conceded i see your point where are you going with it cragar got a puzzled look on his face and don't know exactly but it's bound to have an effect on his character i nodded i'll keep that in mind okay i'll get started right away fine oh could you try to get that crystal with malar's face in it back from damar i may want to use it sure when do you need it tomorrow morning will be fine i'm taking the evening off i'll start on it tomorrow cragar's eyes were sympathetic which was rare sure boss i'll cover for you here see you tomorrow i ate mechanically and thanked the lords of judgment that it was caught he's night to cook and clean i didn't think i'd be up to it after eating i rose and went into the living room i sat down and started trying to sort out some things i didn't get anywhere presently caught he came in and sat down next to me we sat in silence for a while i tried to deny what alira had told me or pass it off as a combination of myth misplaced superstition and illusion unfortunately it made too much sense for that to work why after all had sethral of ode been so friendly to me a girag and an easterner and alira obviously believed all of this or why had she treated me as almost an equal on occasion but more than that was the undeniable fact that it felt true that was the really frightening thing somewhere deep within me doubtless in my soul i knew that what alira had said was true and that meant what that the thing that had driven me into the gereg my hatred of dragarans was in fact a fraud that my contempt for dragons wasn't a feeling of superiority for my system of values over theirs but was in fact a feeling of inadequacy going back how long two hundred thousand years two hundred and fifty thousand years by the multi-jointed fingers of vera i became conscious of caughty holding my hand i smiled at her a bit wandly perhaps want to talk about it she asked quietly that was another good question i wasn't sure if i wanted to talk about it or not but i did haltingly over the course of about two hours caught he was quietly sympathetic but didn't seem really upset really vlad what's the difference i started to answer but she stopped me with a shake of her head i know you've thought that it was being an easterner that made you what you are and now you're wondering but being human is only one aspect isn't it the fact that you had an earlier life as a dragaran maybe several in fact doesn't change what you've gone through in this life no i admitted i suppose not but i know tell you what vlad after this is all over and forgotten maybe a year from now we'll go talk to sethra we'll find out more about what happened and maybe if you want to she'll take you back to that time and you can experience it again if you want to but in the meantime forget it you are who you are and whatever went into making that is all to the good as far as i'm concerned i squeezed her hand glad that i'd discussed it with her i felt a bit more relaxed and started to feel tired i kissed coty's hand thanks for the meal i said she raised her eyebrow i'll bet you don't even know what it was she said i thought for a minute jagala eggs no she'd made that yesterday hey i said it was my night to do the cooking wasn't it she grinned broadly sure was comrade i've tricked you into owing me still another one clever aren't i damn i said she shook her head in mock sadness that makes it let me see now about 247 favors you owe me but who's counting right right i stood up then still holding her hand she followed me into the bedroom or i paid back her favor or she did me another one or we did one for each other depending on exactly how one counts these things the servants of lord kalath admitted me to his castle with obvious distaste i ignored them the duke will see you in his study said the butler looking down at me he held out his hand for my cloak i gave him my sword instead he seemed surprised but took it the trick to surviving a fight with that sir hero is not to have one the trick to not having one is to seem as helpless as possible sir heroes are reluctant to fight when the odds aren't against them i'd been proud of the scheme that had led me here it was nothing unusual of course but it was good solid low risk and had a high probability of gain most important it was very well me i'd been worried that my encounter with alira had dulled my edge somehow changed me made me less able to conceive and execute an elegant plan the execution of this one was still unresolved but i was no longer worried about the conception i was escorted to the study i noted signs of disrepair along the way chipping great on the floor cracks in the ceiling places along the wall that had probably once held expensive tapestries the butler ushered me into the study the duke of keletherin was old and what passes for squat in a dragaran meaning that his shoulders were a bit broader than usual and you could actually see the muscles in his arms his face was smooth surlords don't go in for wrinkles i guess and his eyes had that bit of upward slant associated with the house his eyebrows were remarkably bushy and he would have had a wispy white beard if dragarans had beards he was seated in a straight-backed chair with no arms a broadsword hung at his side and a wizard's staff was leaning against the desk he didn't invite me to sit down i did anyway it is best to get certain things established at the beginning of a conversation i saw his lips tighten but that was all good score one for our side well zereg what is it he asked my lord i hope i didn't disturb you you did small matter has come to my attention which requires that i speak with you kelleth looked up at the butler who bowed to us and left the door snicked shut behind him then the duke allowed himself to look disgusted the small matter no doubt being 4 000 gold imperials i tried to look like i was trying to look apologetic yes my lord according to our records it was due over a month ago now we have tried to be patient but patient hell he snapped at the interest rates you charge i'd think you could stand to hold off a little while with a man who's having a few minor financial troubles that was a laugh as far as i could tell his troubles were anything but minor and it was doubtful that they would end any time in the near future i decided however that it wouldn't be politic to mention this or to suggest that he wouldn't be having these problems at all if he could control his fondness for seyang stones instead i said with all respect my lord it seems that a month is a reasonable length of time to hold off and again with all respect you knew the interest rates when you came to us for help i came to you for help as you put it because never mind he had come to us for help as i'd put it because we had made it clear to him that if he didn't we would make sure that the whole empire particularly the house of that sir knew that he couldn't control his urge to gamble or pay off his debts when he lost perhaps having a reputation as a rotten gambler would have been the worst thing about it to him i shrugged as you wish i said nevertheless i must insist i tell you i just don't have it he exploded what else can i say if i had the gold i'd give it to you if you keep this up i swear by the imperial phoenix that i'll go to the empire and let them know about a few untaxed gambling games i'm aware of and certain untaxed moneylenders here is where it is helpful to know whom you are dealing with in most such cases i would have carefully let him know that if he did that his body would be found within a week probably behind a lower class brothel and looking as if he were killed in a fight with a drunken tavern brawler i've used this technique before on sur heroes and with good effect it isn't the idea of being killed which scares them it is the thought of people thinking that they've been killed in a tavern brawl by some nameless tackler i knew this would frighten caliph but it would also send him into a murderous rage and the fact that i was unarmed and helpless might not stop him also if he didn't kill me on the spot it would certainly guarantee that he'd carry out his threat of going to the empire clearly a different approach was called for oh come now lord kelleth i said what would that do to your reputation no more than it would do to it to have you expose my personal finances anyway for not paying off your blood money sir tend to be careless with terms but i didn't correct him i gave him my patient man trying to be helpful but almost exasperated psy how much time do you need another month maybe two i shook my head sadly i'm afraid that's quite impossible i guess you'll just have to go to the empire it means that one or two of our games will have to find new locations and a certain money lender will have to take a short vacation but i assure you that it won't hurt us nearly as much as it will hurt you i stood up bowed low and turned to leave he didn't rise to see me out which i thought was rude but understandable under the circumstances just before my hand touched the doorknob i stopped and turned around unless unless what he asked suspiciously well i lied it just occurred to me that there may be something you could help me out with he stared at me long and hard trying to guess what kind of game i was playing i kept my face expressionless if i'd wanted him to know the rules i'd have written them out and what is that he asked i'm looking for a little information that involves the history of your house i could find out myself i suppose but it would take a little work that i don't feel like doing it is possible i'm sure for you to find out in fact you might even know already if you could help me i'd appreciate it he was still suspicious but he was beginning to sound eager too and what form he asked will this appreciation take i pretended to think it over i think i could arrange for two month extension for you in fact i'd even go so far as to freeze the interest if you can find this information for me quickly enough he chewed on his lower lip for a while thinking it over but i knew i had him this was too good a chance for him to pass up i'd planned it that way what is it you want to know he said at last i reached into an inner pocket of my cloak and removed the small crystal i'd gotten back from damar i concentrated on it and melar's face appeared i showed it to him this person i said do you know him or could you find out who he is what connection he has with the house of the sir or who his parents were anything you can find out would be helpful we know that he has some connection with your house you can see it in his face if you look closely kelleth's face went white as soon as he saw malar i was surprised by the reaction kellith knew him his lips became a thin line and he turned away who is he i asked i'm afraid said kelleth that i can't help you the question at that point wasn't should i press or even how much should i press it was rather how should i press i decided to continue the game i'd started i shrugged and put the crystal away i'm sorry to hear that i said as you wish i have no doubt that you have good reasons for not wishing to share your information still it is a shame that your good name must be befouled i turned away again wait i i turned back to him i was beginning to get dizzy he seemed to be struggling with himself i stopped worrying i could see which side would win his face was a mask of twisted rage as he said damn you jereg you can't do this to me there was of course nothing to say to this blatantly incorrect statement of our positions i waited patiently he sank back into his chair and covered his face with his hands his name he said it last is lyric i don't know where he came from or who his parents are he appeared 12 years ago and joined our house joined your house how can one join the house of that sir that was startling i'd thought only the gerega allowed one to buy a title lord kelleth looked at me as if he were about to snarl i suddenly recalled alira's contention that that surlords were descended in part from actual sir i could believe it to join the house of that sir he explained the most vicious monotone i've ever heard you must defeat in equal combat 17 champions chosen by the house his eyes suddenly turned bleak i was the fourteenth he is the only man i can remember hearing of who has succeeded since the interregnum i shrugged so he became a sir lord i don't see what is so secret about that we later learned said kelleth something of his origins he was a crossbreed a mongrel well yes i said slowly i can see where that could be a touch annoying but and then he interrupted after he'd only been at sir for two years he just gave up all his titles and joined house gereg can't you see what that means he made fools of us a mongrel can defeat the best the house of the sir has and then chooses to throw it all away he stopped and shrugged i thought it over this lyreth must be one hell of a swordsman it's funny i said that i've never heard of this incident i've been investigating this fellow pretty thoroughly it was kept secret by the house said kelleth lyreth promised us that he'd have the whole empire told of the story if he was killed or if any sir attempted to harm him we'd never be able to live it down i felt a sudden desire to laugh out loud but i controlled it for health reasons i was starting to like this guy malar or lyreth or whatever i mean for the past 12 years he'd had the entire house of heroes by the balls the two most important things to the house of the sir as to an individual sir lord our honor and reputation and this malar had managed to play one off against the other what happens if someone else kills him i asked we have to hope it looks like an accident he said i shook my head and stood up okay thanks you've given me what i needed you can forget about paying the loan for two months and the interest i'll handle the details and if you ever need my help for something just let me know i'm in your debt he nodded still down cast i left him and picked up my blade from the servant i walked out of the castle thinking malar was not going to be easy he had out fought the best warriors in the house of the tsur outmaneuvered the best brains in house gereg and caught the house of the dragon out on a point of honor i shook my head sadly no this wasn't going to be easy and then something else hit me if i did succeed in this i was going to make a lot of surlords mighty unhappy if they ever found out who had killed him they wouldn't wait for evidence as the empire would this didn't exactly make my day either loyoche gave me an imperial chewing out for not having brought him along most of which i ignored craigar filled me in on what he'd learned nothing i found a few servants who used to work in the dragon records he said they didn't know anything what about some that still do i asked they wouldn't talk hmm too bad yeah i put my dragon outfit on and found a lady of the house who was willing to do some looking for me though but you didn't get anything there either well i wouldn't say that exactly oh oh how about you i took great relish in delivering the information i'd gotten since it was rare that i was able to one-up him on a point like this he dutifully noted everything then said you know vlad no one wakes up one morning and discovers that he is good enough to fight his way into the sir he must have worked on that for quite a while that makes sense i said okay that will give me something to work with i'll start checking it through from that angle do you think it'll help who can say if he was good enough to get into the tour he's got to have been trained somewhere i'll see what i can find okay i said and there's something else that bothers me by the way yes why cragar was silent for a moment then he said there are two possibilities i can think of first he could have wanted to become part of the house because he felt it his right and then discovered that it didn't help that he was treated the same after as before or that he didn't like it that makes sense and the other the other possibility is that there was something he wanted and he had to be at sir to get it and there was no need to stay in the house after he had it that made sense too i decided what kind of thing could it be i asked i don't know he said but if that's what it is then i think we damn well better find out craig leaned back in his chair for a moment watching me closely probably still worried about yesterday i didn't say anything best to let him discover in his own way that i was all right i was all right wasn't i i watched myself for a moment i seemed all right it was strange i shook the mood off okay i said start checking it let me know as soon as you have something he nodded then said i heard something interesting today oh what did you hear one of my button men was talking and i overheard him saying that his girlfriend thinks something is wrong with the council i felt suddenly sick wrong how she didn't know but she thought it was something pretty big and she mentioned mellar's name i knew what that meant of course we didn't have much time left maybe a day perhaps two three at the most then it would be too late the demon was certainly hearing rumors by now too what would he do try to get to malar of course me would he make another try for me what about cragar or for that matter caughty normally no one would be interested in them since it was i who was at the top but would the demon be trying for them now in order to get to me i said he agreed with my sentiments craig do you know who this fellow's girlfriend is he nodded a sorceress left hand competent good i said kill her he nodded again i stood up and took off my cloak laying it across my desk i began removing things from it and from various places around my person would you mind heading down to the arsenal and picking up the standard assortment for me i may as well do something useful while we're talking he nodded and departed i found an empty box in the corner and began putting discarded weapons in it still ready to protect me loyoch somebody has to boss he flew over from his windowsill and landed on my right shoulder i scratched him under the chin with my right hand which brought my wrist up to eye level spell breaker wrapped tightly around my forearm gleamed golden in the light i had hopes of that chain being able to defend me against any magic i might encounter and the rest of my weapons if used properly gave me a chance of taking out anyone using a normal blade but it all depended on getting sufficient warning and as an assassin one thing kept revolving around in my head given time and skill anyone can be assassinated anyone my great hope and my great fear all rolled into one i took a dagger out of the box in front of me and checked its edge box i looked up and saw that cragar had returned would you mind telling me how you keep doing that i asked he smiled and shook his head and mocked sadness i looked at him but learned nothing new cragar was about as average a dragaran as it is possible to get he stood just about seven feet tall his hair was light brown over a thin angular face over a thin angular body his ears were just a bit pointed no facial hair which was why i grew a mustache but other than that it was hard to tell a dragaran from a human by looking only at his face how i repeated he raised his eyebrows you really want to know he asked are you really willing to tell me he shrugged i don't know to be honest it isn't anything i do deliberately it's just that people don't notice me that's why i never made it as a dragon lord i'd give an order in the middle of a battle and no one would pay any attention they gave me so much trouble over it that i finally told them all to jump off deathgate falls i nodded and let it pass the last part i knew was a lie he hadn't left the house of the dragon on his own he'd been expelled i knew it and he knew i knew it but that was the story he wanted to give so i accepted it hell i had my own scars that i didn't let craig scratch at i could hardly begrudge him the right to keep me away from his i looked at the dagger that was still in my hand made sure of the edge and balance and slipped it into the upside down spring sheath under my left arm i'm thinking said cragar changing the subject that you don't want mellon to know you're involved in this any sooner than you have to do you think he'll come after me probably he's going to have something of an organization left even now most of it will have scattered or be in the middle of scattering but he's bound to have a few personal friends willing to do things for him i nodded i hadn't planned to advertise it i suppose not do you have any thoughts yet on how to approach the problem of getting him to leave castle black i added another dagger to the pile of weapons in the used box i picked out a replacement tested it and slipped it into the cloak's lining sheath outside of where my left arm would be i checked the draw and added a little more oil to the blade i worked it back and forth in the sheath and continued no i told him i don't have the hint of an idea yet to tell you the truth i'm still working on it i don't suppose you have anything no that's your job thanks heaps i tested the balance on each of the throwing darts and filled the quills with my own combination of blood muscle and nerve poison i set them aside to dry discarded the used ones and looked at the shuriken my original idea i said was to convince him that we'd stopped looking for him and then maybe set up something attractive looking in terms of escape unfortunately i don't think i'll be able to do that in three days damn but i hate working under a time limit i'm sure milar would be awfully sorry to hear that i thought that over for a minute maybe he would come to think of it i think i'll ask him what i'd like to see him myself talk to him get a feel for what he's like i still don't really know enough about him you're nuts we just agreed that you don't want to go anywhere near him you let him know that you're after him and put him on the alert will he figure that out think about it he must know that i'm working for marolan by now he is aware that morolan is on to him so he's probably expecting a visit from roland's security people and if he does suspect that i'm after him so what sure we lose an edge but he isn't going to leave castle black until he's ready to or until moreland kicks him out so what is he going to do about it he can't kill me at castle black for the same reason that i can't kill him there if he guesses that i'm the one who's going to take him he'll guess that i'm revealing it to him so that he'll bolt and he'll just hole up tighter than ever which pointed out craig is exactly what we don't want i shrugged if we're going to get him to leave we'll have to come up with something weird and tricky enough to force him out no matter how badly he wants to stay this isn't going to matter one way or the other craigar pondered this for a while then nodded okay it sounds workable want me to come along no thanks keep things running here and keep working on melar's background loyos will protect me he promised eleven when the blameless and the righteous die the very gods for vengeance cry they say that the banquet hall of castle black has never been empty since it was built over 300 years ago they also say that more duels have been fought there than in chiron square outside the imperial palace you teleport in at approximately the center of the courtyard of the castle black the great double doors of the keep open as you approach and your first sight of the interior of the castle shows you a dimly lit hallway in which lady teldra is framed like the guardian that figure that stands motionless atop death gate falls overlooking the paths of the dead where the real becomes the fanciful but only by degrees lady teldra bows to you she bows exactly the right amount for your house and rank and greets you by name whether she knows you or not she says such words as will make you to feel welcome whether your mission be a friendship or hostility then if it be your desire you are escorted up to the banquet hall you ascend a long black marble stairway the stairs are comfortable if you are human a bit shallow hence elegant if you are trigaran they are long winding sweeping things these stairs there are lamps along the wall that highlight paintings from the long violent sometimes strangely moving history of the dragaran empire here is one done by the necromancer you didn't know she was an artist did you which shows a wounded dragon reptilian head and neck curled around its young as its eyes stare through you and pierce your soul here is one by a nameless lyorn showing chiron the conqueror debating with the shamans with his broadsword cute eh at the top you may look to the right and see the doors of the actual dining hall but if you turn to the left you soon come to a large set of double doors standing open there is always a guard here sometimes two as you look through the room makes itself felt only a little at a time first you notice the picture that fills the entire ceiling it is a depiction of the third siege of tsur mountain done by none other than katana marchala looking at it and tracing the details from wall to wall gives you an idea of just how massive the room really is the walls are done in black marble thinly veined with silver the room is dark but somehow there is never any problem seeing only then do you become aware of people the place is always packed the tables around the edges where food and drink are served are focal points for an endless migration of humanity if i may use the word at the far end there are double doors again these letting out onto a terrace at other sides are smaller doors which lead to private rooms where you can bring some innocent fool to tell your life story to if you so choose or ask a dragon general if he really had that last counter-attack planned all along alira uses these rooms often marolan seldom myself never you know boss this place is a friggin menagerie very true my fine gereg oh we're a wit today yes indeed i shouldered my way through the crowd nodding to acquaintances and sneering at enemies as i went sethra lavode spotted me and we chatted for a few minutes about nothing i didn't really know how to deal with her anymore so i cut the conversation short she gave me a warm despite the cold kiss on the cheek she either knew or suspected but wasn't talking i exchanged pleasant smiles with the necromancer who then turned her attention back to the orca noble she was baiting by the orb boss i swear there are more undead than living in this damn place i gave a cold stare to the sorceress in green which she returned i nodded non-committally at sethra the younger and took a good look around in one corner of the room the crowd had cleared for a sir and a dragon who were shouting insults at each other in preparation for carving each other up one of maroland's wizard guards stood by casting the spells that would prevent any serious damage to the head and laying down the law of the castle with regard to duels i continued searching until i spotted one of marolan's security people i caught his eye nodded to him and he nodded back he slowly drifted toward me i noted that he did a fair to good job of moving through the crowd without disturbing anyone or giving the impression that he was heading anywhere in particular good i made a mental note about him have you seen lord malar i asked him when he reached me he nodded i've been keeping an eye on him he should be over in the corner near the wine tasting we continued to smile and nod as we talked just a chance meeting of casual acquaintances good thanks should i be ready for trouble he asked always but not in particular at the moment just stay alert always he agreed is marolyn here at the moment i haven't seen him neither have i i think he's in the library okay i began walking toward the wine tasting i scanned in one direction loyoch in the other he rode on my right shoulder as if daring anyone to make a remark about his presence he spotted malar first there he is boss eh where against the wall see oh yes thanks i approached slowly sizing him up he had been hard to spot because there was nothing particularly distinctive about him he stood just under seven feet tall his hair was dark brown and somewhat wavy falling to just above his shoulders i suppose a dragaran would have considered him handsome but not remarkably so he had an air about him like a gereg watchful quiet and controlled very dangerous i could read do not mess with me signs on him he was speaking to a noble of the house of the hawk that i didn't know and who was almost certainly unaware that as he spoke milar was constantly scanning the crowd perhaps even unconsciously alert looking he spotted me we looked at each other for a moment as i approached and i felt myself come under expert scrutiny i wondered how many of my weapons and devices he was spotting a good number of course and naturally not all of them i walked up to him count malar i said how do you do i am vladimir taltosh he nodded to me i bowed from the neck the hawklord turned at the sound of my voice noted that i was an easterner and scowled he addressed malar it seems that moreland will let anyone in these days malar shrugged and smiled a little the hawklord bowed to him then and turned away perhaps later my lord yes a pleasure meeting you my lord malar turned back to me baronet isn't it i nodded i hope i didn't interrupt anything important not at all this was going to be different than my dealing with the tsur lord kelleth unlike him milar knew all the rules he'd used my title to let me know that he knew who i was implying that it might be safe to tell him more i knew how the game was played as well this was a strange conversation in other ways however for one thing it simply isn't my custom to speak to people that i'm going to nail before i'm ready i don't want to go anywhere near them i have no desire to give the target any idea who i am or what i'm like even if he doesn't realize that i'm going to become his executioner but this was different i was going to have to get him to set himself up that meant that i needed to know the bastard better than i'd ever known any other target in my career and just to put the honey in the clava i knew less about him than i did about anyone else i'd ever set out after so i had to find out a few things about him and he no doubt would like to find out a few things about me or at least what i was doing here i thought up and rejected a dozen or so opening gambits before i settled on one i understand from lord maroland that you acquired a book he was interested in yes did he tell you what it was not in detail i hope he was satisfied with it he seemed to be good it's always nice to help people isn't it though how did you happen to get hold of the volume i understand that it's quite rare and hard to come by he smiled a little i'm surprised marolyn asked he said which told me something not much perhaps but it confirmed that he knew that i worked for marolan file that away he didn't i said i was just curious myself he nodded and the smile came on again briefly we made small talk for a while longer each letting the other be the first to commit himself to revealing how much he knew in a gambit to learn what the other knew i decided after a while that he was not going to be first he was the one with only a little to gain so i understand alira introduced herself to you he seemed startled by the turn of the conversation why yes she did quite remarkable isn't she is she in what way i shrugged she's got a good brain for a dragon lord i hadn't noticed she seemed rather vague to me good unless he was a lot sharper than he had any right to be and a damn good liar which was possible he hadn't realized that she'd been casting a spell as she was speaking to him that gave me a clue as to his level of sorcery not up to hers indeed i said what did you talk about oh nothing really pleasantries well that's something isn't it how many dragons do you know who will exchange pleasantries with a gereg perhaps on the other hand of course she may have been trying to find something out about me what makes you think so i didn't say i thought so just that she may have been i've wondered myself as to her reasons for seeking me out i can imagine i haven't noticed that dragons tend towards subtlety however did she seem irritated with you i could see his mind working how much he was thinking should i tell this guy hoping to pull information out of him he couldn't risk a lie that i would recognize or i wouldn't be of any further use to him and he couldn't really know how much i knew we were both playing the same game and either one of us could put the limit on it how much did he want to know how badly did he want to know it how worried was he not on the surface he said at last but i did get the impression that she might not have liked me it ruined my whole day i'm telling you i chuckled a little any idea why this time i'd gone too far i could see him clam up none at all he said okay so i'd gotten a little and he'd gotten a little which one of us had gotten more would be determined by which one of us was alive after this was over well loyoch did you find out anything more than you did boss oh what in specific mental images of two faces appeared to my mind's eye these two they were watching you the entire time from a few feet away oh really so he has bodyguards eh at least two of them are you surprised not really i'm just surprised that i didn't pick up on them i guess they're pretty good yeah thanks by the way no problem it's a good thing that one of us stays awake i made my way out of the banquet hall and considered my next move let's see i really should check in with marolan first however i wanted to talk to one of the security people and arrange for some surveillance on those two bodyguards i wanted to learn a bit about them before i found myself confronting them on any important issue moreland security officer on duty had an office just a few doors down from the library i walked in without knocking the nature of my job putting me a step above this fellow the person who looked up at me as i stepped in was called uleron and he should have been working the next shift not this one what are you doing here i asked where is fentor he shrugged he wanted me to take his shift this time and he'd take pine i guess he had some kind of business i was bothered by this do you do this often i asked well he said looking puzzled both you and merlin said it was all right for us to switch from time to time and we logged it last shift but do you do it often no not really very often does it matter i don't know shut up for a minute i want to think fentor was a salmon and he'd been with marolin's security forces for over 50 years it was hard to imagine him suddenly being on the take but it is possible to bring pressures down on anyone why what did they want the other thing i couldn't figure out was why i had such a strong reaction to the switch sure it was coming at a bad time but they'd done it before i almost dismissed it but i've learned something about my own hunches the only time they turn out to be meaningful is when i ignore them i sat on the edge of the desk and tried to sort it out there was something significant about this there had to be i drew a dagger and started flipping it what do you make of this loyoch i don't make anything of it boss why do you think there's something wrong i don't know just that there's a break in routine right now when we know that the demon wants to get at milar and he isn't going to let the fact that malar is in castle black stop him you think this could be a shot at malar or the setup for it i don't know i'm worried but didn't the demon say that there wouldn't be any need to start a war he said it could be worked around yes he did i hadn't forgotten that i just don't see how he can do it i stopped at that moment i saw very clearly how he could do it that of course was why the demon had tried to get my cooperation and then tried to kill me when i wouldn't give it oh i didn't want to take the time to run down the hall i reached out for contact with marolyn there was a good chance that i was already too late of course but perhaps not if i could reach him i would have to try to convince him not to leave castle black under any circumstances i'd have to i became aware that i wasn't reaching him i felt myself slipping into automatic where my brain takes off on its own and lets me know what i'm supposed to do next i concentrated on alira and got contact yes vlad what is it merlin i can't reach him and it's urgent can you find him with pathfinder what's wrong vlad if we hurry we might be able to get him before they make him unrevivifiable echo of the thoughts hadn't died out in my head before she was standing next to me pathfinder naked in her hand i heard a gasp from behind me and remembered uleron hold the keep for us i told him and pray i sheathed my dagger i wanted to have both hands free if i don't know what i'm going to run into i consider hands to be more versatile than any given weapon i longed to unwrap spellbreaker and be holding it ready but i didn't i was better off this way alira was deep in concentration and i saw a pathfinder begin to emit a soft green glow this was something i despised having to sit there ready to do something but waiting for someone else to finish before i could i studied pathfinder it shimmered green along its hard black length pathfinder was a short weapon compared to most swords that dragarans use it was both shorter and heavier than the rapiers i liked to use but in alera's hands it was light and capable and of course it was a great weapon what is a great weapon that's a good question i wondered the same thing myself as i watched alira concentrating her eyes narrowed to slits and her hands steadily holding the pulsating blade as far as my knowledge goes however there is this a morganti weapon made by one of the small strange race called cerioli that dwell in the jungles and mountains of dragara is capable of destroying the soul of the person it kills they are all of them strange and frightening things endowed with a kind of sentience they come in differing degrees of power and some are enchanted in other ways but there are a few legends says 17 that go beyond a kind of sentience these are the great weapons they are all of them powerful they all have enough sentience to actually decide whether or not to destroy the soul of the victim each has its own abilities skills and powers and each one it is said is linked to the soul of the one who bears it it can and will do anything necessary to preserve its bearer if he is the one chosen for it and the things those weapons can do alira tugged at my sleeve and nodded when i looked up there was a twist down in my bowels the walls vanished and i felt sick as usual we were standing in what appeared to be an unused warehouse alira gave a gasp and i followed her glance moreland's body was lying on the floor a few feet from us there was a dark red spot on his chest i approached him feeling sicker than ever i dropped to my knee next to him and saw that he wasn't breathing alira sheathed pathfinder and dropped down beside me she ran her hands over marolyn's body once her face closed with concentration then she sat back and shook her head on revivifiable i asked she nodded her eyes were cold and gray morning if there was to be any would come later 12. tread lightly near thine own traps is there anything we can do elira i'm not sure she said bide she carefully ran her hands once more over marolyn's body while i made a cursory survey of the warehouse i didn't find anything but there were several areas that i couldn't see i can't break it she said at last break what the spell preventing revivification oh however the sorcerer who put it on could if it's done soon enough we'll have to find him quickly her i corrected automatically she was up in an instant staring at me you know who did it not exactly i said but i think we're safe in limiting it to the left hand of the gereg and most of them are female she looked puzzled why would the gereg want to kill morolan i shook my head i'll explain later right now we have to find that sorceress any suggestions as to how we do this pathfinder has nothing to work with i need a psionic image or at least a face or a name i've checked around the room but i'm not able to pick up anything you generally don't with gireg if she's competent she wouldn't have had to feel any strong emotions in order to do what she did she nodded i began looking around the room hoping to find some kind of clue loyoce was faster however he flew around the perimeter and quickly spotted something over here boss alira and i rushed over there and almost tripped over another body lying face down on the floor i turned it over and saw fentor's face staring up at me his throat had been cut by a wide bladed knife used skillfully and with precision the jugular had been neatly slit i turned to alira to ask if he was revivifiable but she was already checking i stepped back to give her room she nodded once then laid her left hand on his throat she held it there for a moment and removed it the wound was closed and from where i stood i could only barely make out a faint scar she continued checking over his body and turned it over to make sure that there was nothing on his back she turned it over again and laid both of her hands on his chest she closed her eyes and i could see the lines of tension on her face fentor started breathing i let the air out of my lungs realizing that i'd been holding it in his eyes fluttered open fear recognition relief puzzlement understanding i wondered what my own face had looked like that time alira had brought me back to life he reached up with his right hand and touched his throat he shivered he saw me but had no reaction that indicated guilt good he hadn't been bought off at least i'd have liked to have given him time to recover but we couldn't afford it every second we waited made it that much less likely that we could find the sorceress who had finished off merlin and we had to find her and make her i reached out for contact with craigar after a long time or so it seemed i reached him what is it boss can you get a fix on me it'll take a while problems you guessed it i need a morganti blade don't bother making it untraceable this time just make it strong check sword or dagger dagger if possible but a sword will do okay and you want it sent to where you are right and hurry all right leave our link open so i can trace down it right i turned back to fentor what happened briefly he closed his eyes for a moment collecting his thoughts i was sitting at the security office when no i interrupted we don't have time for the whole thing right now just what happened after you got here he nodded okay i showed up was slugged when i woke up i was blindfolded i heard some talking but i couldn't make out anything anyone said i tried to reach you and then merlin but they had some kind of block up i sat there for about 15 minutes and tried to get out someone touched me on the throat with a knife to let me know i was being watched so i stopped i felt someone teleport in around then and then someone cut my throat he winced and turned away when he turned back his face was composed again that's all i know so we still don't have anything i said not necessarily said alira she turned to fentor you say you heard voices he nodded were any of them female he squinted for a moment trying to remember then nodded yes there was definitely a woman there she reached forward again and placed her hand on his forehead now she instructed think about that voice concentrate on it try to hear it in your mind he realized what was going on and looked over at me his eyes wide no one no matter how innocent enjoys being mind probed do it i said cooperate he dropped his head back and closed his eyes after about a minute alira opened her eyes and looked up i think i've got it she said she drew pathfinder and fentor gasped and tried to draw away at about that moment there was a small popping sound and i heard craig our pseudo voice say okay here it is i saw a sheathed dagger at my feet good work i told him and cut the link before he could get around to asking any questions i drew the dagger and studied it the instant it was out of the sheath i recognized it as morganti i felt the blade's sentience ringing within my mind and i shuddered it was a large knife with a point and an edge two edges in fact as it was sharpened a few inches along the back the blade was about 16 inches long and had a wicked curve along the back where it was sharpened a knife fighter's weapon the hilt was large and quite plain the handle was a trifle uncomfortable in my hand it had been made for dragarans of course i sheathed it and hung it on my belt on the left side it was next to the sword in front of it and set up for a cross-body draw i tested it a few times to make sure that its placement didn't interfere with getting to my sword i looked over at alira and nodded that i was ready fentor i said when you're feeling strong enough contact uleron he'll arrange to get you back consider yourself temporarily suspended from duties he managed a nod as i felt the gut-wrenching twist of a teleport take effect some general pointers on assassination and similar activities do not have yourself teleported so that when you arrive at the scene you are feeling sick to your stomach particularly avoided when you have no idea whatsoever as to where you're going to end up failing these at least make sure that it isn't a crowded tavern at the height of the rush hour when you don't know exactly where your victim is if you do the people around you will have time to react to you before you can begin to move and of course don't do it in a place where your victim is sitting at a table surrounded by sorceresses if for some reason you have to violate all of the above rules try to have next to you an enraged dragonlord with a great weapon fortunately i wasn't here to do an assassination well not exactly alera faced one direction i faced the other i spotted them first but not before i heard a shout and saw several people go into various types of frenzied actions if this was a typical gereg owned establishment there could be up to a half dozen people here who regularly brought bodyguards with them at least some of the bodyguards would recognize me and hence be aware that an assassin was now among them duck boss i dropped to one knee as i spotted the table and so avoided a knife that came whistling at my head i saw someone female point her finger at me spell breaker fell into my hand and i swung it out it must have intercepted whatever it was that she was trying to do to me i wasn't blasted or paralyzed or whatever a problem occurred to me just then i had recognized the table because there were a lot of people at it that i knew to be with the left hand and because they had reacted to my suddenly showing up one of them therefore must have understood what i was doing there which was confirmed by alera's presence and acted accordingly i could safely kill all but her but which one was it i couldn't tell by looking at them by this time they were all standing up and ready to destroy us i was paralyzed as surely as if a spell had hit me alira wasn't however she must have asked pathfinder which one it was as soon as she had seen the table just a fraction of a second after i did as it happened she didn't feel like stopping long enough to let me in on the secret she jumped past me pathfinder arcing wildly i saw what must have been another spell aimed at me and i swung spellbreaker again caught it alira had her left hand in front of her i could see multicolored lights striking it pathfinder connected with the head of a sorceress with light brown curly hair who would have been quite pretty if it weren't for the look on her face and the dent in her forehead i shouted over the screams as i rolled along the floor hoping to present a difficult target dammit alira which one she cut again and another fell her head departing her shoulders and coming to rest next to me but alira had heard me her left hand stopped blocking spells and she pointed directly at one of the sorceresses for a moment it was someone i didn't know something seemed to strike alira at that moment but pathfinder emitted a bright green flash for an instant and she continued with the mayhem my left hand found three shuriken and i flipped them at one of the sorceresses who was trying to do something or other to alira you know that's what i hate most about fighting against magic you never know what they're trying to do to you until it hits the sorceress knew what hit her however two of the shuriken got past whatever defenses she had one caught her just below the throat the other in the middle of her chest it wouldn't kill her but she wouldn't be fighting anyone for a while i noticed loyoce about then flying into people's faces and forcing them to fend him off or else heal the poison i began to work my way toward our target grab her then have alira teleport us out and put up trace blocks the sorceress beat us to it i was on my feet and moving toward her i was perhaps five steps away when she vanished at the same moment something hit me i discovered that i couldn't move i'd been running and i wasn't especially in balance so i hit the floor rather hard i ended up on my back in a position where i could see alera torn between helping me and trying to trace and follow the vanished sorceress i'm fine i lied to her psionically just get that and stuff her somewhere alira promptly vanished leaving me all alone paralyzed what the hell had i done that for i asked myself at the edge of my line of sight the paralysis was complete enough that i couldn't even move my eyeballs which is remarkably frustrating i saw one of the sorceresses pointing her finger at me i would i suppose have prepared to die if i had known how she didn't get a chance to complete the spell however at that moment a winged shape hit her face from the side and i heard her scream and she fell out of my line of sight loyos back off and get out of here go to death's gate boss so where did he think i was going the sorceress was back in my line of sight now and i saw a look of rage on her face she held out her hand again but it wasn't pointed at me this time she tried to follow loyoce with her hand but was having problems i couldn't see the gireg but i knew what he must be doing i couldn't move to activate spellbreaker much less do something meaningful i could have tried to summon craigar but it would all be over before i could even contact him witchcraft also just took too damn long i would have screamed if i could have it wasn't so much that they were going to kill me but lying there utterly helpless while loyoce was going to be burned to a crisp i almost exploded with frustration my mind hammered at the invisible bonds that held me as i recklessly drew on my link to the orb for power but there was not a chance that i could break the bindings i just wasn't a sorcerer of the same class as they were if only alira were here that was a laugh they wouldn't have been able to bind her like this if they had the nerve to try she'd dissolve them all in chaos dissolve them in chaos the phrase rang through my mind and echoed through the warehouse of my memory i wonder how genetic heritage interacts with reincarnation of the soul oddly i was alira's brother the thoughts took no time whatsoever i knew what i had to do then although i had no idea how to do it but at that point i didn't care let the whole world blow up let the entire planet be dissolved in chaos the sorceress who was still within my range of vision became my whole world for a moment i envisioned her dissolving dissipating vanishing all of the sorceress energy i had summoned and been unable to use i threw then and my rage and frustration guided it i have heard since that those who were looking on saw a stream of something like formless colorless fire shoot for me toward the tall sorceress with the finger pointing off into the air who never saw it coming as for me i suddenly felt myself drained of energy of hate of everything i saw her fall in upon herself and dissolve into a swirling mass of all the colors i could conceive of and several that i couldn't screams reached my ears they meant nothing i found that i could move again when my head suddenly hit the floor and i realized that it had been up at an angle i tried to look around but couldn't raise my head i think someone yelled it's spreading which struck me as odd boss get up wha oh later loyoch boss now hurry it's moving toward you what is whatever it was that you threw at her hurry boss it's almost reached you that was odd enough that i forced my head up a little bit he was right there seemed to be almost a pool of something that more or less centered where the sorceress had been standing now that was strange i thought several things occurred to me at once first that this must be what happened when something dissolved into a morphia it spread second that i really should control it third that i had no idea at all of how when went about controlling chaos it seemed rather a contradiction in terms if you see my point fourth i became aware that the outermost tendrils were damn close to me finally i realized that i just plain didn't have the strength to move and then there was another cry from off to my side and i became aware that someone had teleported in that almost set me off laughing no no i wanted to say you don't teleport into a situation like this you teleport out there was a bright green glow off to my right and i saw alira striding directly up to the edge of the formless mass that filled that part of the room loyos landed next to me and began licking my ear come on boss get up now that was out of the question of course much too much work but i did succeed in holding my head up enough to watch alira that was very interesting in a hazy unimportant sort of way she stopped at the edge of the formless mass and held out pathfinder with her right hand her left hand was raised up palm out in a gesture of warding and so help me vera it stopped spreading i thought i was imagining things at first but no it had certainly stopped spreading then slowly it assumed a single uniform color green it was very interesting watching it change it started at the edges and then worked in until the entire mass was a sort of emerald shade she began gesturing with her left hand then and the green mask began to shimmer and slowly it turned blue i thought it was very pretty i looked closely was it my imagination or did the blue mass seem a bit smaller than it had been i looked around the edges of where it had been and confirmed it there was nothing there now the wooden floor of the restaurant was gone and it pulled back to reveal the edge of what appeared to be a pit i looked up and discovered that part of the ceiling was missing as well gradually i began to see the blue mass shrinking it took on the form slowly of a circle or rather a sphere about ten feet in diameter alera was moving forward levitating over the hole in the floor the ten feet became five feet then a foot then elira's body obscured it completely i felt strength returning to me loyoch was still next to me licking my ear i heaved myself up to a sitting position as alira turned and came toward me appearing to walk over the nothingness below her when she reached me she grasped my shoulder and forced me to stand up i couldn't read the expression on her face she held out her hand to me when i was stable on my feet again in her hand was a small blue crystal i took it and felt a warmth from it pulsating gently i shuddered she spoke for the first time a bauble for your wife she said tell her how you got it if you wish she'll never believe you anyway i looked around the room was empty hardly surprising no one with any brains feels like rubbing shoulders with an uncontrolled mass of raw amorphia how how did you do it i asked she shook her head spend 50 or 100 years studying it she said then walk into the great sea of chaos and make friends with it after assuring yourself that you have the echiron genes after you do all that maybe if you absolutely have to you can risk doing something like what you did she stopped for a minute and said that was really incredibly stupid you know i shrugged not feeling a whole lot like answering just then i was however beginning to feel a bit more like myself i stretched and said we'd better get going before the imperial guard show up alira shrugged made a brushing off motion and started to say something when loyo suddenly said god's boss and i heard the sound of feet tromping right on cue there were three of them pulling their grim official faces and holding great swords their eyes focused on me not seeming to notice a lira at all i could hardly blame them of course they hear about a big mess and a gereg owned bar come in and see an easterner in the colors of household what are they supposed to think i had three weapons pointing at me then i didn't move looking at them i gave myself even odds of fighting my way out given that loyos was there and these fools generally don't know much about dealing with poison or thrown weapons of any kind i didn't do anything about it of course even if i'd felt in top shape and there was only one of them i wouldn't have touched him you do not kill imperial guards ever you can bribe them plead with them reason with them you don't fight them if you do there are only two possible outcomes either you lose in which case you are dead or you win in which case you are dead but this time it turned out i had no reason to worry i heard alira's voice over my shoulder leave us she said the guard turned his attention to her seemingly for the first time he raised his eyebrows recognizing her for a dragon lord and not quite knowing how to take all this i felt tremendous amounts of sympathy for the fellow who are you he asked approaching her but keeping his blade politely out of line alira flung back her cloak and placed her hand on the hilt of pathfinder they must have sensed what it was immediately for i saw them all recoil somewhat and they knew as i knew that there was all the difference in the world between an imperial guard killed by a gereg and a fight between dragons i she announced am alira e kyron this girag is mine you may go he looked nervous for a moment licked his lips and turned back to the others as far as i could tell they didn't express an opinion one way or the other he turned back to alira and looked at her for a moment then he bowed and without a word turned and left his fellows falling in behind i would be very interested in hearing what they put in their reports i decided alira turned back to me what hit you she asked a complete external binding as far as i can tell they didn't get my ears or for that matter my heart or lungs but they got just about everything else she nodded i suddenly remembered what we'd been doing there the sorceress did you get her she smiled nodded and patted the hilt of pathfinder i shuddered again you had to destroy her she shook her head you forget vlad this is a great weapon her body is back in castle black and her soul is here where we can get at it whenever we want it she chuckled i shuddered still another time i'm sorry but some things bother me and marolyn's body he's at castle black too the necromancer is looking after him seeing if she can find a way to break the spell it doesn't look hopeful unless we can convince our friend to help i nodded okay then let's get going at this point i suddenly remembered that when those imperial guards were here i'd been carrying a high potency morganti weapon on my person if i'd remembered that at the time i don't know what i would have done but i'd have been a lot more worried this was the first time i'd come close to actually getting caught with one and i was suddenly very happy that alira was along by the time we returned to castle black my stomach was more than just a little irritated with me if i'd eaten recently i would probably have lost the meal i resolved to be extra kind to my innards the rest of the day moreland has a tower high up in his castle it is the center of much of his power i'm told besides himself very few people are allowed up there i'm one alira is another still another is the necromancer the tower is the center of merlin's worship of vera the demon goddess he serves and i do mean serves he has been known to sacrifice entire villages to her the tower is always dark lit only by a few black candles there is a single window in it which does not look down on the courtyard below if you're lucky it doesn't look upon anything at all if you aren't it will look upon things which may destroy your sanity we laid moreland's body on the floor beneath the window on the altar in the center of the room was the sorceress her head was propped up so that she could see the window this was at my suggestion i had no intention of actually using the window for anything but having her see it would help with what we were trying to do the necromancer aided alira who revivified the sorceress it could conceivably have been the other way around too there are few who know more about the transfer of souls and the mysteries of death than the necromancer but it was alira's great weapon so she did the necessary spells the sorceress's eyes fluttered open and her face went through the same patterns that fentors had earlier except that it ended with fear this part was my job i had no desire to give her time to take in her surroundings more than casually or to orient herself the fact that she had been picked by whoever had killed morolan guaranteed that she was good which guaranteed that she was tough i didn't figure to have an easy time of this by any means and so the first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was the window it was politely empty at the moment but nonetheless effective and before she had time to adjust to that she saw my face i was standing over her and doing my best to look unfriendly well i said did you enjoy the experience she didn't answer i wondered what it was like having her soul eaten so i asked her she still didn't answer by this time she would be cognizant of several things including the chains that held her tied to the altar and the spells in the room which kept her from using sorcery i waited for a moment to make sure it all sank in properly you know i said conversationally alira enjoyed killing you that way she wanted to do it again fear controlled i wouldn't let her i said i wanted to do it no reaction you okay boss damn is it showing that much only to me good no i'm not okay but there isn't anything i can do about it either perhaps i went on to her it is a flaw in my character but i truly enjoy using morgante weapons on you still nothing that's why we brought you back you know as i said it i drew the dagger cragar had supplied me with and held it before her eyes they widened with recognition she shook her head in denial i'd never had to do anything like this before and i wasn't liking it now it wasn't as if she'd done something wrong she just accepted a standard contract much as i would have done unfortunately she'd gotten involved with the wrong people and unfortunately we needed her cooperation because she'd done a good job i couldn't stop myself from identifying closely with her i touched her throat with the back of the blade above the edge i felt it fighting me trying to turn around to get at the skin to cut to drink she felt it too i held on to control however being an honorable sort i have to inform you that if you cooperate with us i won't be allowed to use this on you a pity if that would happen her face showed the gleam of hope she felt and she hated herself for it well after all i didn't feel real good about myself just then either but that's the game i grabbed her hair and lifted her head a bit more her eyes landed on me rolan's figure lying directly under the window which still showed only black you know what we want i said i personally don't give a tecla squawk if you do it or not but some others here do we arrived at a compromise i have to ask you just once to remove the spell you put on if you don't agree i can have you if you do marolan gets to decide what to do with you she was openly trembling now to a gereg professional a contract is an almost sacred bond most of us would rather lose our souls than break a contract in the abstract however when it comes right down to the moment well we'd soon see i'd never been in the kind of situation she was in and i prayed to vera that i never would be feeling very much the hypocrite i think i would have broken about there myself well maybe not it's so hard to say well what is it i asked harshly i saw her face torn with indecision sometimes i truly loathe the things i do maybe i should have been a thief after all i grabbed hold of her dress and raised it up exposing her legs i pulled at one knee loyoch hissed right on cue and i said aloud no not until i'm done with her i licked the forefinger of my left hand and wetted down a spot on the inside of her thigh she was close to tears now which meant she was also close to breaking well now or never too late i said with relish and lowered the morganti blade slowly and deliberately toward her thigh the point touched no my god stop i'll do it i dropped the knife onto the floor and grabbed her head again and supported her shoulders she was facing marolyn's body her own was shaking with sobs i nodded to alira who dropped the protection spell which had cut off her sorcery if she'd been faking she was now in a position to put up a fight but she knew damn well that she wouldn't be able to win against both alira and me not to mention the necromancer then do it now i snapped before i changed my mind she nodded weakly still sobbing quietly i saw her concentrate for a moment the necromancer spoke for the first time it is done she said i let the sorceress fall back i felt sick again the necromancer stepped up to marolin's body and began working on it i didn't watch the only sounds were the sobbing of the sorceress and very faintly our breathing after a few minutes the necromancer stood up her dull undead eyes looked almost happy for a moment i looked over at merlin who was breathing now evenly and deeply his eyes opened unlike the others his first reaction was anger i saw a scowl form on his lips then confusion he looked around what happened he asked you were set up i said he looked puzzled and shook his head he held a hand up and i assisted him to his feet he looked at all of us his eyes coming to rest on the sorceress who was still sobbing quietly he looked back and forth at alira and me for a moment then asked who is this one left hand i explained she was retained i expect by whoever did the job on you she was to make sure you couldn't be revivified she did it too but of course whoever put the spell on can take it off again and we convinced her to remove it he looked thoughtfully at her she's pretty good then eh good enough said elira then said marolyn i suspect she did more than that someone hit me as soon as i arrived at that place warehouse i said that warehouse someone succeeded in stripping away all of my defensive spells could that have been you my lady she looked over at him bleakly but didn't respond it must have been i said why hire two sorceresses when you only need one he nodded i retrieved the dagger from the floor sheathed it and handed it to merlin he collects more gaunty weapons and i didn't ever want to see this one again he looked at it and nodded the knife disappeared into his cloak let's get out of here i said we headed for the exit alira caught my eye and she couldn't quite keep the disgust from her face i looked away what about her i asked marolan we guaranteed her her soul if she'd help us but made no promises other than that he nodded looked back at her and drew a plain steel dagger from his belt the rest of us went out the door none of us really desirous of seeing the end of the affair thirteen the bite of the yendi can never be fully healed marolyn had caught up to us by the time we reached the library and his dagger was sheathed i tried to put the whole incident out of mind i failed of course in fact and here's a funny thing if you're in the mood for a laugh i had done 41 assassinations at this point and i had never been bothered by one i mean not a bit but this time when i actually hadn't even hurt the it bothered me so much that for weeks afterward i'd wake up seeing her face it could be that she laid some kind of curse on me but i doubt it it's just that oh hell i don't want to talk about it fentor was in the library when we arrived when he saw him roland he almost broke down he rushed up and fell to his knees casting his head down i thought i was going to get sick all over again but moreland was more understanding get up he said gruffly then sit down and tell us about it fentor nodded and stood moreland guided him to a seat and poured him a glass of wine he drank it thirstly failing to appreciate the vintage while we found seats and poured wine for ourselves presently he was able to speak it was this morning my lord that i received a message how muralin interrupted psionic all right proceed he identified himself as a gereg and he said he had some information to sell me indeed what kind of information a name my lord he said that there was going to be an attempt made on malar one of our guests and that the assassin didn't care that he was here fentor gave an apologetic shrug as if to apologize for his contacts lack of judgment he said the assassin was good enough to beat our security system morolan looked at me and raised his eyebrow i was in charge of security he was saying in his eloquent way could it be beaten anyone can be assassinated i told merlin dryly he allowed his lips to smile a bit nodded and returned his attention to fentor did you really think merlin asked him that they were prepared to start another dragon gireg war i opened my mouth to speak but thought better of it let him finish his tale i was afraid he might said fentor in any case i thought it would be a good idea to get the name just to be safe he was willing to give you the name of the assassin i found myself asking he nodded he said that he was desperate for money and had come across it and knew moreland would be interested i don't suppose said merlin that it occurred to you to bring this information to me before you try to do anything yourself phantor was silent for a moment then he asked would you have done it my lord most assuredly not said marolyn i would hardly submit to anyone's extortion he lifted his chin slightly be still my beating stomach fentor nodded i assumed that you would have that reaction my lord on the other hand it's my job to make sure nothing happens to your guests and i thought i'd need any advantage i could get if there really was an assassin who was going to try for malar how much did he want i asked three thousand gold imperials cheap i remarked given what he was risking where did the gold come from merlin asked fentor shrugged i'm not really poor he said and since i was doing it on my own i suspected as much said marolan you will be reimbursed fentor shook his head oh i still have the gold he said they never took it i could have told him that after all we were dealing with professionals fentor continued i arrived at the teleport coordinates they gave me and was hit as soon as i got there i was blindfolded and then killed i had no idea what had happened or why until i got up after alera revivified me and saw he choked for a minute and looked away and saw your body my lord that was when i arranged to have us teleported back i felt a momentary twinge of sympathy for him we probably should have let him know about marolin's corpse a few feet away but then i hadn't exactly been in the mood for polite chit chat nor had the time for it moreland nodded sagely as he finished i've temporarily relieved him from duty i put in maroland stood up and went over to him he looked down on fentor for a moment then he said all right i approve of the motivations behind your actions i understand and sympathize with your reasoning but there is not to be a repetition of this action in the future is this understood yes my lord and thank you roland clapped him on the shoulder very well he said you are restored to duty get back to work fentore bowed and left morolin shut the door behind him after seeing him out sat down and sipped his wine no doubt he said you are all hoping to hear what happened to me you guessed it i said he shrugged i received a message from the same individual who contacted fentor most likely phantor he claimed was being held i was instructed he said the word as if it tasted bad to withdraw my protection of the lord malar and remove him from my home they told me that if i didn't they would kill fentor they threatened to use a morganti blade on him if i made any attempt to rescue him so naturally i said you went charging right in there naturally he agreed ignoring my sarcasm i kept him talking long enough to trace where he was put up my standard protection spells and teleported in was fentor alive then i asked he nodded yes while i was trying the trace i made them put me in contact with him to verify that he was alive he was unconscious but living in any case he continued i arrived that uh lady we just left through some kind of spell i assume it was preset i didn't realize that it was her until just now of course but whatever it was removed my protections against physical attack he shook his head i'm forced to admire their timing you would have appreciated it vlad before i was really aware of what had happened something hit me in the back of the head and i saw a knife coming toward me most unpleasant i had no time to counter-attack in any way as they intended of course i nodded they knew what they were doing i should have figured it out sooner how did you catch on at all asked alera certain parties had mentioned that they had found a way to kill malar without bringing the whole house of the dragon down on their heads it took me way too long but it finally occurred to me that the one way to do that without getting malar to leave castle black would be if moreland were to turn up conveniently dead then of course there wouldn't be a problem since he'd no longer be marolyn's guest as it were moreland shook his head sadly i continued as soon as i found out that fentor and uleron had changed shifts i knew something was up i figured out what it had to be contacted alira and well you know the rest he didn't of course but i wasn't really in the mood to tell him how i almost managed to dissolve myself and half of adrelanka in raw chaos maroland looked at me hard and who he asked is this person who came up with this marvelous scheme i matched his stare and shook my head no i said that information i can't give even you he looked at me a moment longer then shrugged well my thanks in any case you know what the real irony is i said what i've been trying to come up with some way to prevent another dragon girag war myself and when one drops right into my lap i chuck it out moreland allowed himself a small smile i don't really think they'd go that far do you he asked i started to nod stopped damn right they'd go that far and knowing the demon he wouldn't waste a lot of time being about it what's wrong vlad asked alira i shook my head and contacted fentor yes my lord are you back on duty yes my lord run a full check on all our secure areas now make sure nothing's been breached i want it done an hour ago move i held the contact while he gave the necessary orders if i were going to take out malar how would i get past moreland's security system i ran it through my mind i'd set the damn thing up myself however so of course i couldn't see any flaws in it ask kyra later if there was time if it wasn't already too late everything checks my lord okay by the moment maroland and alira were looking at me puzzled i ignored them now forget the windows no one gets in that way tunnel huh from a mile in the air when moreland can detect any sorcery done around the castle no way a hole in the wall if they weren't going to use sorcery which they shouldn't be able to it would take too long doors the main door had witchcraft sorcery and lady teldra forget that rear doors servants entrances no we had guards guards could the guards have been bribed it would take how many damn only two how long did he have to set this up not more than two days no he couldn't find two guards he would take in only two days without finding one who would talk first kill all the ones who said no fentor any deaths of guards within the last two days no my lord okay good no one was bribed one else replace a guard oh that's what i'd do fentor do we have any new guards working today people who have been on the payroll less than three days if not check for servants but check for guards first that's what i'd do of course take a job as a guard or a servant and wait for the perfect moment all i'd have to do is arrange for the right guard to be busy or ill or to need sudden days off maybe bribe one person maybe not even have to if i could get access to the records and slip my name in as a matter of fact yes we have someone new outside the banquet hall the guard who normally has that duty i broke the link i was already running and half out the door before i heard my roland and elira shouting after me the necromancer who hadn't said a word the entire time remained behind after all what was another death more or less to her i charged down to the banquet hall at full tilt loyoch however was faster he was flapping his way about 10 paces ahead of me when i saw the two guards outside the door i saw that they recognized me they bowed slightly and came to alert as i started to get close i noticed from fifty feet away that one of them had a dagger concealed under his uniform which is very undragonlike thank barlin we were in time moreland was close to my heels as i approached the guard with the concealed dagger locked eyes with me for a moment then he turned and bolted into the room loyoche close behind him maroland and i raced after him i took out a throwing knife moreland drew blackwand i cringed involuntarily from the things that that unsheathed blade did to my mind but i didn't let it slow me down there were shouts from inside the hall doubtless in response to morolan's psionic orders i ran past the door for a moment i couldn't see him obscured as he was by the crowd then i saw loyo strike there was a scream and i saw a sword flash we stopped malar was now in plain view looking not at all concerned he favored marolan with a look of inquiry and his very feet was the guard the latter's head was a few feet off to the side a real guard stood over the body his long sword bare and dripping he looked up at marolan who nodded to him marolyn and i walked up to the body and removed a dagger from the outstretched hand he took it and studied it for a moment he said good job to the guard the guard shook his head thanked the gereg he said looking at loyos with an expression of wonder on his face if he hadn't slowed him down i'd never admit it in time finally someone who appreciates me finally you do a day's work two dead tecla on your pillow we ignored melar completely and walked back out of the room all right snapped marolan as we left get this place cleaned up alira appeared beside us and we headed back toward the library moreland handed me the dagger i touched it and knew it once that it was morganti i shuddered and handed it back to him there were just too damn many of those things floating around lately you realize what this means don't you he said i nodded and you knew this would happen i guessed it when the attempt to nail you didn't work they had to go ahead and get him anyway we've been lucky i added i've been too slow to pick up on most of this if milar had happened to walk by the door any time in the last hour it would be all over by now we entered the library the necromancer nodded a greeting to us and gestured with her wine glass the strange perpetual half smile on her face i've always liked her someday i hope to understand her on the other hand perhaps i'd better hope not to as we seated ourselves i said to morolan i've been meaning to get around to talking to you since i found out about the bodyguards bodyguards whose malars right as far as i can tell he has two of them as far as who can tell boss shut up loyos that is rather interesting said marlin he most assuredly had no bodyguards when he arrived i shrugged so they aren't on your guest list that makes them fair game doesn't it he nodded it appears that he doesn't especially trust my oath something about that bothered me but i couldn't quite put my finger on it possibly i said but it's more likely that he doesn't trust the gereg not to start another war just to get him well he's correct in that is he not vlad i nodded and looked away whoever this millar was in the gereg said marolan he certainly must have hurt some pretty big people big enough i said marolan shook his head i just can't believe that the girag would be that stupid both houses were very nearly destroyed the first time and the last time last time i echoed it's only happened once as far as i know he seemed surprised didn't you know but of course it wouldn't be something the gereg would discuss excessively i wouldn't know myself if alira hadn't told me about it told you what my voice sounded faint and hollow in my own ears alira cut in it happened once more it started the same as before with a girag killed by an assassin while he was a guest in a dragonlord's home the dragons retaliated the gereg retaliated and she shrugged why haven't i heard of this before because things went to hell after that and it never got really well recorded briefly the gereg who was killed was the friend of the dragonlord and he was helping him out on something someone found out what he was doing and put a stop to it the dragons demanded that the assassin be turned over to them and this time the geraig agreed i guess how gereg felt that he should have known better and also it may have been a private quarrel on some level in any case the assassin escaped from the dragonlord's home before he was killed he killed a couple of dragons on the way out then he killed a couple of the geraig bosses who had turned him in he was killed himself later but by then it was too late to stop anyone why if it was just the one individual this was during the reign of a decadent phoenix so nobody was trusting anybody the gereg thought that it was the dragons who had killed the bosses and the dragons thought it was the gereg who had arranged the escape and then things went to hell you say right then she nodded the gereg killed enough of the right dragon lords including some wizards so that a certain one who'd been planning a coup found himself forced to move too soon and to rely too heavily on magic and without his best sorcerers the spell got out of control even after the emperor was dead and her voice trailed off it started to sink in i can subtract as well as anyone can and if the first dragon gerego was when it was then the second one had to be decadent phoenix dragon coup went to hell spell got out of control dead phoenix emperor adron i said she nodded my father the assassin had reasons of his own to hate the emperor and was working with father to find a way to poison the emperor when things fell apart as you know it was mario who finally killed the emperor when he tried to use the orb against the gereg another phoenix tried to grab the throne and father had to move too quickly the next thing you know we have a sea of amorphia where the city of dragara used to be no emperor no orb and no empire it was close to 200 years before zarika turned up with the orb i shook my head just too damn many sharks in two damn few days i couldn't handle it and now i said it's going to start up again morola nodded at this we were all silent for a time then marolyn said quietly and if that happens vlad which side will you be on i looked away you know he continued that i'd be one of house or eggs first targets i know i said i also know that you'd be in the front lines trying to waste the organization as would alira for that matter and by the way i'd be one of the first ones the dragons went after he nodded do you think you could convince the gereg to let this one go i shook my head i'm not an isola merlin and i don't have that sharp a tooth and to tell you the truth i'm not all that sure that i'd do it if i could i've heard all the reasons why malar has to go and they're hard to argue with i see perhaps you could convince them to wait as you know he'll only be staying here a few more days no way merlin it can't be done he nodded we sat there in silence for a time then i said i don't suppose there is any way just this once that you could let us have him all you have to do is kick him out you know i hadn't intended to even ask but alera looked up intent for a moment sorry vlad no alira sighed all right i said i didn't really think you would we were all quiet again for a few minutes then merlin spoke once more i probably don't have to say this but i will remind you that if anything anything at all happens to him in this house i'm not going to rest until i find out the cause i'm not going to hold back even if it's you and if it is you or any other gereg i will personally declare war on the house and i'll have the backing of every dragon in the empire we have been friends for a long time and you have saved my life on more than one occasion but i will not allow you or anyone else to get away with the murder of one of my guests you understand that don't you merolan i said if i had intended to do anything like that i wouldn't have asked you about it would i i would have done it already we've known each other for how long four years i'm surprised that you know me so little that you'd think i'd abuse your friendship he shook his head sadly i never thought you would i just had to make sure that the matter was stated clearly and in the open all right all right i guess i had it coming to me for asking you what i did anyway i'll be heading off now i'm going to have to think about this he stood as i did i bowed to him to alira and to the necromancer alira bowed back the necromancer looked out at me from within her dark eyes and she smiled as i turned toward the door moroland gripped my shoulder vlad i'm sorry i nodded me too i said 14. oft tis startling to reveal what the murky depths conceal caughty knew me better than any other being that i'm aware of with the possible exception of loyoche she suppressed any desire she might have had for conversation and allowed me to brood in silence as we ain't she squelched the suggestion that i take her turn at cooking since she'd taken mine and carefully cooked something bland and uninteresting so that i'd feel no compulsion to compliment her on it clever lady my wife our apartment was a small second story number which had two virtues it was well lit and it had a large kitchen there was one way to tell an apartment owned by a member of the gereg from any other kind of apartment the lack of spells to prevent or detect burglary why simple no common thief is going to lighten the apartment of a member of the organization except by mistake if a mistake like that happens i will have everything back within two days guaranteed craig may have to arrange for a few broken bones to do it but it will get done the only other kind of burglar there is is someone like kyra someone specifically commissioned to get into my place and get something if this happens there just isn't any kind of defense i could put up that would matter a tecla squawk keep kyra out so we sat snug and secure in our little kitchen and i said you know what the problem is what every time i try to think of how to do it all i can think of is what happens if i don't she nodded it's still hard for me to believe that the demon would consciously and deliberately go out and start a dragon jeric war i shook my head what choice does he have really well if you were in his position would you that's just the thing i said i think i would sure they'd chew us up and spit us out again but if milar gets away with this it's slow death for the whole organization if you get every punk on the street thinking that he can burn the council one of them is bound to succeed eventually and then even more will try and it'll just keep getting worse it hit me then that i was parroting everything the demon had told me i shrugged so what it was true if only there were some way to get rid of malar without a war but of course there had been a way the demon had found one sure just kill morolan he had thought that was why he had given me that chance back at the blue flame to cooperate well he was an honorable sort after all i couldn't deny that i wondered what his next move would be he could take another try for me or moreland or skip it and go straight for malar i guessed that he would try for malar since time was becoming rather critical with people already starting to talk how much longer could this be held under our cloaks another day two if we were lucky caught he was speaking i realized you're right she was saying he has to be taken out and i can't touch him while he's at castle black and the gereg isn't about to wait until he leaves not anymore they wouldn't how would the attack come this time no matter they couldn't send anything up in a day and merlin had tightened his security again it would wait until tomorrow it had to i wasn't good for much of anything today just as you said i told her caught between a dragon and a sir wait a minute vlad what about it sir couldn't you maneuver at sir hero into taking him out for you we could try to find one of the younger ones who doesn't know the story about him maybe a wizard you know how easy it is to manipulate sir heroes i shook my hand no good beloved i said thinking of merlin's speech earlier aside from the chance that maroland would figure out what happened i'm just not willing to do that to him but if he never found out no i'd know that i was the one who had caused his oath to be broken remember malar isn't just at the home of a dragonlord which would be bad enough morolan in particular has made a point of having castle black be a kind of sanctuary for anyone and everyone he invites it means too much to him for me to trifle with it my my aren't we the honorable sort today shut up loyoch clean your plate it's your plate besides i added coty how would you feel if you had taken the job and the target was holed up with no rethor the mention of her old friend and partner stopped her hmm no rathar would understand she said after a while would she yes well no i suppose not right and you wouldn't ask her to would you she was silent for a while longer than no i didn't think so she sighed then i don't see any way out neither do i the way out as you put it is to convince malar to leave castle black of his own free will and then nail him when he does we can trick him however we want or set up any kind of fake message but can't actually attack him or use any form of magic against him while he's there wait a minute lord marolan won't let us attack him or use magic but if we say deliver a note that convinces him to leave that's okay marolan won't care right a look of utter confusion passed over her features but but that's ridiculous what difference does it make to marole and how we get him out if we do what does using magic have to do with it i shook my head have i ever claimed to understand dragons but oh i can almost see it in a way we can't actually do anything to him is the idea but isn't tricking him doing something to him well yes sort of but it's different at least tomorrowland for one thing it's a matter of free choice magic doesn't give the victim a choice trickery does i also suspect that part of it is that moreland doesn't think we'll be able to do it and he has a point there you know malar is going to be on his guard against anything like that i don't really see how we're going to be able to do anything i don't either i nodded i've got craig digging into his background and we're hoping we'll find some weak spot there or something we can use i'll have to admit i'm not real hopeful she was silent i wonder i said a little later what mario would do mario she laughed he would hang around him with no one seeing him for years if he had to when milar finally left castle black however and whenever mario would be there and take him but the organization can't wait they'd wait for mario remember i took this on with time constraints yes she said softly but mario wouldn't have that stung a bit but i had to admit that it was true especially since i'd come to the same realization when the demon had first proposed the job to me in any case she went on there's only one mario i nodded sadly and what i asked her then would you and norathar have done if the thing had been given to you she thought about that for a long time then she said i'm not really sure but remember that moroland isn't that close a friend of ours or at least he wasn't when we were still working chances are we'd put some sort of spell on malar to get him to leave and make damn sure marolan never found out that didn't help either i wonder what malar would do i understand he was a pretty fair assassin himself on his way up maybe we'll invite him over sometime and ask him caught he laughed easily you'll have to ask him at castle black i understand he isn't getting out much these days i idly watched loyoche nibble at the scraps of our mule i got up and wandered into the living room i sat there for a while thinking and looking at the light brown walls but nothing came i still couldn't shake the nagging feeling that i'd gotten when i'd been talking to morolan i tried to recall the part of the conversation that had triggered it something about bodyguards caughty i called her voice came back from the kitchen yes dear did you know that malar has a couple of bodyguards no but i'm not surprised i'm not either they must be pretty good too because they were watching me while i talked to malar and i didn't notice them at all did you mention them to merlin yes he seemed a little surprised i suppose you know you're free to do them don't you since they obviously sneaked in they aren't guests that's true i agreed it also proves how good they are slipping into castle black isn't the work of an amateur if our protections are half as good as i think they are of course we hadn't increased the guards then but still she finished up her cleaning and sat down next to me i rested my head on her shoulder she moved away from me then and patted her lap i stretched out and crossed my legs loyoch flew over and landed on my shoulder nuzzling me with his head there was still something about those bodyguards that seemed funny i couldn't quite put my finger on it which was incredibly frustrating in fact there was something strange about this whole affair that i couldn't quite see do you think said conte a little later that you might be able to buy off one of the bonnie cards what do you think i said if you have a whole organization to choose from don't you think you could find two people in it who are completely trustworthy especially if you had an extra nine million gold to pay them with i guess you're right she admitted on the other hand there are other kinds of pressures we could bring to bear in two days conti i don't think so she nodded and gently stroked my forehead and she said even if we did i don't suppose it would really help if we can't take him anyway it won't do any good to convince one of the bodyguards to step back at the right time cling i had it not much perhaps but i suddenly knew what had been bothering me i sat up on the couch startling loyoch who hissed his indignation at me i leaned over and kissed caughty long and hard what was that for she asked a little breathlessly not you understand that i mind i gripped her hand and locked eyes and concentrated letting her share my thoughts she seemed a bit startled at first but quickly settled into it i brought up the memory of standing at the entranceway and passed it running and the sight of the dead assassin with a morganti dagger in his hand i played over the whole thing remembering expressions glimpses of the room and things only an assassin would have noticed as well as things an assassin should have noticed if they'd been there hey boss want to run by the part of me getting the guy one more time shut up lois caught he nodded as it unfolded and shared it with me we reached the point where marolyn handed me the dagger and i broke out of it there i said does anything strike you as odd she thought it over well malar seemed pretty calm for someone who has almost been killed and with the morganti dagger but other than that i brushed it aside chances are he never realized that it was morganti yes it was odd but i don't mean that then i don't see what you're referring to i'm referring to the strange action of the bodyguards at the assassination attempt but the bodyguards did nothing at the assassination attempt that was the strange action she nodded slowly i continued if the dragon guard had been just a little bit slower malar would have been cut down i can't reconcile that with our conclusion that they are competent i suppose malar might have had time to get a weapon out or something but he sure didn't look like it the bodyguards were just nowhere to be seen if they're as good as we think they are they should have been all over the assassin before marolyn's guard had time to show steel ahem or loyoch had time to strike i added they couldn't be that fast caughty looked thoughtful could it be that they just weren't around that malar sent them on some kind of errand that my dear is exactly what i'm thinking and if so i'd very much like to find out what it was that they were doing she nodded of course she said it could be that they were there and were good enough to see that moreland's guard was going to stop him that is also possible i said but if they're that good i'm really scared do you know if they are still with him good point i said just a minute while i check i contacted one of marolin's people in the banquet hall asked and was answered they're still around i said which means that they weren't bought off by the demon or the assassin whatever reason they had for their strange action it was good enough for malar i nodded and that my dearest love is a good place to start looking tomorrow come on let's go to bed she gave me her wide-eyed innocent look what did you have in mind my lord what makes you think i have something in mind you always do are you trying to tell me that you don't have everything planned out she walked into the bedroom nothing i said has been planned out since i started this damned job we'll just have to improvise i gave myself two days to complete the thing i was aware that i was being unduly optimistic i arrived at the office somewhat early the next morning hoping to spend the day looking for a solid plan or at least the shade of a direction i was congratulating myself on having beaten cragar who is normally an early riser when i heard him coughing gently he was seated opposite me with his smug little i've been sitting here for ten minutes now look i gave him a moderate to dangerous gereg sneer and said what did you find out well he said why don't we start out with the bad news before we get to the bad news the bad news or the other bad news damn you're just full of high spirits today aren't you he shrugged okay i said what's the bad news there have been rumors he stated oh joy how accurate are they not very no one has quite put together the rumors of something unusual going on with malar and the ones about the gereg's having financial trouble can it wait two days he looked doubtful maybe somebody's going to have to start answering questions soon though tomorrow would be better and today would be better still let me put it this way will the day after tomorrow be too late he looked thoughtful probably he said at last i shook my head well at any rate it isn't me who's going to have to answer the questions there is that he agreed oh and one piece of good news really we'll break out the kilonara by vera's hair we'll have a bloody celebration i'll bring the dead tackler don't drink yourself into a stupor yet all it is is that we've gotten that sorceress you wanted the one who is spreading rumors already good give the assassin a bonus i already have he said it was half luck she just happened to be in the perfect place and he took her right away good you make luck like that though remember the guy i will okay now for the rest did you find out anything about malar's background plenty he said taking out his notebook and flipping it open but so far as i can tell none of it is going to be of any real help to us forget about that for now let's at least try to get some idea of who the hell he really is then we'll see if that gives us anything to work with craigo nodded found his place and began reading his mother lived the happy and fulfilling life of a dragon sir half-breed she wound up a his father it seems was into a whole lot of different things but was certainly an assassin reasonably competent too as far as i can tell his father died during the fall of the city of dragara we think the same thing happened to his mother he hid out during the eastern invasions and showed up again after zurich took the throne he tried to claim kinship with the house of the dragon and was rejected of course he tried the same thing with the house of the tsur with the same results wait a minute i said you mean this was before he fought his way in right oh by the way his real name is lyric or rather that was the name he was born with that was the name he used the first time he joined the gereg the first time right it took one hell of a lot of digging to find out what we did he was using the name lyric of course and there are no references to anyone of that name in gereg records then how lyon records it cost us about 2 000 gold to do by the way and it turns out someone had managed to bribe a few lyons a lot of records that should have mentioned him or his family weren't there part of it was just luck that we ran across something that he'd missed or couldn't get access to the rest was clever planning brilliant execution money i said right and i found a young leon lady who couldn't resist my obvious charms i'm surprised she noticed you ah they never do until it's too late you know i was impressed in any case both with craig and with malar bribing lyons to get access to records isn't easy and bribing them to actually alter records is almost unheard of it would be like bribing an assassin to give you the name of the guy who gave him the contract actually cragar continued he didn't officially join house gereg then which was one reason we had so much trouble he worked for it on a straight freelance basis worked that's right i don't believe this cranker how many assassins are we going to run into i'm beginning to feel like i'm one of a horde yeah it just isn't safe to walk the streets at night is it he smirked i gestured toward the wine cabinet it was a bit early for me but i felt the need of something to help me keep up with the sharks was he good i asked competent he agreed as he poured us each a glass of barrett's valley white he did only small time stuff but never muffed one it seems that he never took on anything that was worth over three thousand that's enough to make a living i said i guess so on the other hand he also didn't spend very much time at it he didn't take on work more than once or twice a year in fact oh yeah here's the killer if you'll excuse the expression all the time he was working for the gereg he was spending most of his free time studying swordsmanship really really and get this he was studying under lord owner i sat up in my chair so suddenly that i almost dumped loyoch who complained rather bitterly about the abuse oh ho i said so that's how he got so good with the blade that he could beat 17 sir heroes he nodded grimly i asked do you have any guesses as to why onar was willing to take him on as a student no guesses i know exactly it's a real sweet story too ona's wife apparently contracted one of the plagues during the interregnum mellar or i guess he was called lyric then found a witch to cure it as you know sorcery was inoperable then and there were damn few easterner witches willing to work on trigarans and even fewer dragarans who knew witchcraft i know all about it i said shortly craig are stopped and gave me a look my father died of one of the plagues i explained after the interregnum when they were pretty much beaten he didn't know sorcery i did but not quite enough we could have cured him with witchcraft either myself or my grandfather but he wouldn't let us witchcraft was too eastern you see dad wanted to be a dragaran that's why he bought a title in the gereg and made me study dragaran style swordsmanship and sorcery and of course after dumping all of our money out the window there wasn't any left to hire a sorcerer i'd have died of the same plague if my grandfather hadn't cured me cragar spoke softly i didn't know that vlad anyway go on i said well he continued if you haven't guessed it already it was mellar who had arranged with which to give owner's wife the plague in the first place so he comes up just as she's dying saves her and onar is very very grateful onar is so grateful in fact that he's willing to teach swordsmanship to a houseless crossbreed nice story isn't it interesting some elegant moves there isn't it interesting you'll note the timing i'm sure yeah he started this before he tried to join the house of the sur the first time or the house of the dragon right which means unless i miss my guess that he knew exactly what would happen when he tried to claim membership i nodded that puts a bit of a different light on things doesn't it it makes his attempting to join the dragon and the turn not so much confusing as downright mystifying craig are nodded and another thing i said it would appear that his planning goes back a lot longer than the 10 years we were thinking of it's more like 200 longer than that said craig oh that's right he started during the interregnum didn't he 300 then maybe 400 that's right impressive isn't it i agreed so continue well he worked with onar for close to a hundred years in secret then he fought his way into the house of the tsur when he felt he was ready and from there you know the story i thought it over a bit trying to sort it out it was too early to see if there was anything there that i could use but i wanted to try to understand him as well as i could did you ever find any clues about why he wanted to get into the sir the second time when he fought his way in craig shook his head okay that's something i'd like to find out what about sorcery has he studied it at all as far as i can tell only little witchcraft no way well so we have something anyway for all the good it will do us i sipped my wine as the information began to sink in or rather as much of it as i could handle just then studied under onar onare and fought his way into the sir only to leave and join or rather rejoin the gereg and get to the top and then lighten the whole council why just to show that he could do it well he was part sir but i still couldn't quite see it and that business with onar and all that plotting and scheming strange you know craig r if it ever comes down to any kind of straight fight with this guy i think i'm in trouble he snorted you have a talent for understatement he'll carve you into stew i shrugged on the other hand remember that i use eastern style fencing that could throw him off a bit since he's one of you hack hack cut types a damn good one yeah we sat there for a while in silence sipping our wine then craig asked what did you find anything new i nodded had a busy day yesterday oh really tell me about it so i gave him an account of the day's events the new information i'd gotten loyoce made sure that i got the part about the rescue right when i told him about the bodyguards he was impressed and puzzled that doesn't make sense vlad he remarked where would he have sent them i don't have the vagus although after what you've just told me i can see another explanation i'm afraid i don't like it much either what's that it could be that the bodyguards are sorcerers and that malar figures that he can handle any physical attack himself but it didn't look like he was doing anything at all did it i shook my head no i have to admit it didn't but maybe he was figuring to beat the guy only if he had to and was counting on marolan's guards to stop him which after all they did with help i am ended quickly krager shook his head would you count on someone else to be quick enough well no but then i'm not the fighter that malar is we already know that cragar looked highly unconvinced well so was i the only thing that really makes sense he said is if you were right originally he had some mission for them and they happened to be off doing it when the assassin came in for his move maybe i said then wait a minute i must be slipping or something why don't i check it what just a minute i reached out for contact thinking of that guard who i'd talked to in the banquet hall i'd made a mental note of him now what was his name who is it this is lord taltosh i said let us be pretentious yes my lord what is it have you been keeping an eye on those two bodyguards of malars i've been trying my lord they're pretty slippery okay good were you on duty during the assassination attempt last night yes my lord were the bodyguards there no my lord wait i'm not sure yes yes they were no possible doubt no my lord i had them marked just before it happened and they were still there when i found them again just a few seconds afterwards okay that's all good work i broke the link and told craig what i'd found out he shook his head sadly and another nice theory blown through death's gate yeah i just couldn't figure it nothing about this business made sense i couldn't see why he did it or why his bodyguard seemed so cavalier about the whole thing or any of it but nothing happens for no reason there had to be an explanation somewhere i took out a dagger and started flipping it craig got grunted you know the funny thing vlad what i'd love to hear something funny just around now poor mellow that's what's funny i snorted poor melar what about poor us he's the one who started this whole thing and we're going to get ourselves wiped out because of it sure said craig but he's dead anyway one way or another he started this thing and there isn't any way that he's going to survive it the poor fool came up with this truly gorgeous scheme to steal jerry gold and live through it and he worked on it as far as we can tell for a good 300 years and instead of having it work he's going to die anyway and take two houses with him well i said i'm sure he wouldn't cry about taking the two houses with him i stopped the poor fool craig had said but we knew malar was no fool how can you come up with something like this spend hundreds of years thousands of imperials and then trip up because you didn't realize that the gereg would take an action which even to me seemed logical and reasonable that wasn't just foolishness that was downright stupidity and there was just no way i was going to start thinking that milar was stupid no either he knew some way of coming out of this alive or or click click click one by one things started to fall into place click click wham the look on milar's face the actions of the bodyguards the fighting his way into the house of the sir all of it fit i found myself filled with awe at the magnificence of melar's plan it was tremendous i found myself against my will filled with admiration what is it vlad what is it boss i just shook my head my dagger had stopped in mid toss and i was so stunned i didn't even catch it it hit my foot and it was only blind luck that the hilt was down but i expect that even if it had landed point first in my foot i wouldn't have noticed it was so damn beautiful for a while i almost wonder whether i had the heart to stop it even if i could think of a way it was so perfect as far as i could tell in the hundreds of years of planning and execution he hadn't made one mistake it was incredible i was running out of adjectives dermot vlad talk what's going on you should know i told him what you pointed to at first a couple of times the other day vera was it only a day or two ago it feels like years what did i point to come on damn you gregor said you're the one who started telling me what it would be like to grow up a crossbreed so so we still couldn't help thinking of him as a gereg well he is a gereg i shook my hand not genetically he isn't what does genetics have to do with it everything that's when i should have realized it when alira told me what it really meant to be of a certain house don't you see cragar but no you wouldn't you're a gereg and you we don't look at things that way but it's true you can't deny your house if you're a dragaran look at yourself cragar to save my life you had to disobey my orders that isn't a gereg thing to do at all the only time a gereg will disobey orders is when he's planning to kill his boss but a dragon cragar a dragon will sometimes find that the only way to fulfill his commander's wishes is to violate his commands and do what has to be done and risk a court martial if he has to that was the dragon in you that did it despite your opinion of the dragons to a dragaran his house controls everything the way he lives his goals his skills his strengths his weaknesses there is nothing but nothing that has more influence on a dragaran than his house than the house he was born into no matter how he was raised it's different with humans perhaps but i should have seen it damn i should have seen it a hundred things pointed to it for the love of the empire flawed what cragar i said settling down a bit think for a minute this guy isn't just a girag he's also got the bloodlust of a dragon and the heroism of atsur so so check your records old friend remember his father why don't you find out more about him go ahead do the research but i'll tell you right now what you're going to find his father killed someone another gereg just before the interregnum the gereg he killed was protected by a dragon lord to be exact by lord adron mellar's plan wasn't concocted to get gereg gold and get out alive the whole point of it was to get himself killed for more than three hundred years he's been planning things so that he'd be killed perhaps with a morganti weapon he didn't care and he'd be killed and the information he'd planted would come out about the tsur and he'd wash their faces with mud and at the same time the two houses that he hates the most the dragons and the gereg would destroy each other the whole thing was done for revenge cragar revenge for the way a cross-breed is treated and revenge for the death of his father revenge as courageous as a ter as vicious as a dragon and as cunning as a gereg that's what this is all about cragar cragar looked like a creature who's just found that a dragon has wandered into its net he went through the same process i had of every little detail falling into place and like me he began to shake his head in wonderment his face a mask of stony shark oh boss was all he said i nodded in agreement 15. staring into the dragon's jaw one quickly learns wisdom the banquet hall of castle black appeared the same as it had the last time a few different faces a few of the same faces many faceless faces i stood in the doorway for a moment then stepped inside i wanted to gather my thoughts a little and let my stomach finish its recovering act before i began any serious work can you believe boss that marolan actually likes it this way you know dragons loyoch cragar had taken an hour and had verified each of my guesses as regarded melar's parentage it seemed that his father had indeed been the one whose work had set off the second dragon jerich war which cragar had never heard of either the references to it among the leon records had been scattered but clear the thing had happened and more or less as i'd been told everything fit together very nicely and i wasn't a bit closer to figuring out what to do about it than i'd been the day before that was the really annoying thing all of this information really ought to be food for something besides the satisfaction of solving a puzzle oh sure it meant that i knew now that certain things wouldn't work since melar had no intention of leaving castle black alive but i hadn't had any idea of what to do before so that didn't really affect anything it occurred to me that the more i found out the more difficult instead of easier the thing became maybe i should arrange to forget most of this there was i realized then still one more mystery to solve it wasn't a big one or i expected a difficult one but i was somewhat curious about why malar had brought bodyguards with him at all if he didn't intend to try to save his life not very important perhaps but by now i couldn't afford to overlook anything this was what had brought me back to the banquet hall to take a look at them and see if there was anything i could learn guess or at least eliminate i wandered through the crowd smiling nodding drinking after about 15 minutes i spotted malar i brought up the memory of the two faces that loyos had given me and found the two bodyguards a few feet away i moved as close to them as i figured was safe and looked at them yes they were both fighters they had that way of moving of standing that indicated physical power both were large men with big capable hands and they were both skilled in observing a crowd without seeming to why were they doing it though i was convinced by now that they had no intention of stopping an assassin so they must have some other purpose a small part of me wanted to just take them both out here and now but i had no intention of doing so until i knew what their business was and of course there was no guarantee that i'd succeed i was very careful to avoid having them notice my scrutiny but you can never be sure of course i checked them as carefully as i could for concealed weapons but oddly i didn't spot any they both had swords standard regarding long swords and they each had a dagger but i couldn't see anything concealed on any of them after five minutes i turned and started to leave the banquet hall making my way carefully through the mass of humanity i had almost reached the door when loyoce interrupted my contemplation boss he said tough guy warning behind you i turned in time to see one of them coming up to me i waited for him he stopped about one foot in front of me which is what i call intimidation range i wasn't intimidated well maybe just a little he didn't waste any time with preliminaries one warning whiskers he said don't try it try what i asked innocently although i felt my heart drop a few inches i ignored the insult the last time i'd let the term bother me i hadn't had any but the implications of the statement were let us say not pleasing anything was his answer he looked at me for a few seconds more then he turned and walked away damn so milar did know i was after him but why would he want to stop me oh of course he didn't he was working under the assumption that i was out for him and that i had no idea of why he was doing this that made sense if i had somehow given myself away which was certainly possible then it would be out of character for him to ignore it he was playing the game to the hilt interesting choice of words there i noticed this made me feel somewhat better but not a whole lot it was a bad thing that milar knew where the threat was coming from while the bodyguards wouldn't actually stop a direct attack on malar the fact that they were aware of me seriously cut my chances of getting away with anything tricky and whatever i came up with now it was going to have to be something tricky i felt the first glimmerings of the younger brother to despair stir within me as i left the hall i forced the feeling down just outside the door i stopped and got in touch with alira who knows i thought maybe she and sethra have come up with something in any case i felt that i ought to let them know what we learned what is it vlad mind if i come up and see you i have some information that you probably don't want to hear i can hardly wait she said i'll be expecting you in my chambers i walked down the hall to the stairs and met merolin descending i nodded to him and started to pass by he motioned to me i stopped and he walked up the hall toward the library i followed dutifully and sat down after he had closed the door behind me the situation reminded me unpleasantly of a servant being called in for a dressing down for not scrubbing the chamber pot sufficiently vlad he said perhaps you would care to enlighten me on just exactly what is occurring around here eh something has happened somewhere that i don't know about i can feel it you are preparing to move on malar aren't you by vera's fingers did the whole empire know he began ticking off points alira is rather upset about this whole matter and doesn't know quite what to do you were acting the same way as of yesterday today i am informed that you have been if i may put it so snooping around milar i see alira and she is just as pleased with life as you can imagine then i see you walking up the stairs i assume to see my cousin and you appear to know what you're doing all of a sudden now would you mind telling me exactly what it is you two are planning i was silent for a while then i said slowly and carefully if i'm acting any different today than yesterday it's because we just solved the mystery not the problem i still don't have any idea what i'm going to do about it i will say however that i have no intention of doing anything that will in any way compromise you your oath or your house i believe i stated that yesterday and i have no reason to change my mind is that sufficient go boss go shut up loyoch marolan stared at me long and hard as if he were trying to read my mind i flatter myself however that even demar would have trouble doing that without my noticing morolan i think also respects me too much to do so without asking first and in any case hawk eyes should stay on hawk lords where they belong he nodded once all right then he said we'll say no more about the matter frankly i said i don't know what is on elira's mind as you guessed i was heading up to see her when i ran into you but i don't have anything planned with her yet i hope she doesn't have anything planned without me he looked grim i like that rather less he said i shrugged as long as i'm here tell me have you checked over those bodyguards yes i took a look at them what of it are they sorcerers he seemed to debate with himself for a moment then he nodded yes both of them quite competent too damn the good news just kept piling up okay then is there anything else you wanted no yes i would appreciate it if you would keep an eye on alira spy on alera no he said emphatically just if she tries to do something that she should perhaps not do i think you understand try to discuss it with her all right i nodded as the last piece of the puzzle fell into its place of course that was what malara was worried about he had bodyguard so that he wouldn't be killed by a non-gereg he had indeed heard of pathfinder the solving of this last piece of the mystery put me no closer to its solution no surprise i took my leave of merlin and headed up the stairs to elira's chambers i felt his eyes on my back the whole way what kept you asked alyra morolan wanted to have a chat i noted that alira did indeed seem to be in fine spirits today her eyes were bright green and shining she relaxed against the back of her bed absently stroking a cat that i'd not been introduced to loyoce and the cat eyed each other with abstract hunger i see she said what about he seems to think that you have something in mind for that matter so do i care to tell me about it she arched her eyebrows and smiled maybe you go first the cat rolled over on its back demanding that its stomach be attended to its long white fur stood out a little as it chose to deny that loyos existed alira obliged it hey boss yes loyos isn't it disgusting how some people cater to the whims of dumb animals i didn't answer for starters alira the idea we had before won't work why not it seemed that she wasn't too worried i was beginning to be a number of reasons i said but the main thing is that malar has no intention of leaving here i explained our deductions about malar's plans and motives surprisingly her first reaction was similar to mine she shook her head in admiration then slowly her eyes turned a hard metallic gray i shuddered i'm not going to let him get away with this vlod you know that don't you well i hadn't actually known but i'd been afraid of something like it what are you going to do i asked softly she didn't say anything but her hand came to rest on pathfinder's hilt i kept my voice soft even and controlled if you do you are aware that morolan will be forced to kill you so what she asked simply why don't we find a better way for example damn it i don't know what do you think i've been racking my brains about for the last few days if we can find some way to convince him to leave we can still follow the original idea you trace him with pathfinder and then we take him wherever he ends up if i just had more time how much time do you have that was a very good question if we were very very lucky the news wouldn't get out for three more days but unfortunately i couldn't count on being lucky and what was worse neither could the demon what would his next effort be like i asked myself again and how much of a chance would i have to stop it i didn't like the answer i got to that last question today and tomorrow i told her and what she asked happens then death's gate opens up the matter is taken out of my hands my body turns up somewhere and i miss out on a fine dragon gereg war you get to see the war lucky you she gave me a nasty grin i might enjoy it she said i smiled back at her you might at that however she admitted it wouldn't do the house any good i agreed with that too on the other hand she said if i kill him there's no problem the two houses don't fight and only that sir are hurt and who cares about them anyway well maybe we can think of some way to intercept the information about them before it gets out they aren't the problem i told her the problem is that you end up dead or having to kill marolan i don't consider either possibility to be an ideal outcome i have no intention of killing my cousin alira stated great then you leave him alive with his reputation dead she shrugged i am not unconcerned about my cousin's honor she informed me it's just that i'm more concerned with precedence than morolan there's another thing too i added oh to be honest alira i'm not convinced that you can take milar he's got two experts guarding him both of them good fighters and both good sorcerers i've already told you who trained him as a swordsman and remember that he was good enough to fight his way into the house of that sir he's determined that only azureg is going to get him and i'm afraid he may have what it takes to back that up i'm not at all sure that you'll be able to kill him she listened patiently to my monologue then gave me a cynical smile somehow she said i'll manage i decided to change the subject there was only one other thing i had to try and that was liable to get me killed i didn't really feel like doing it so i asked where is sethra by the way she's returned to sir mountain eh why elira studied the floor for a while then turned her attention back to the cat she's getting ready four a war said elira just wonderful she thinks it will come to that alira nodded i didn't tell her what i plan on doing so she's assuming it's going to happen and she wants to make sure that the dragons win eh alira gave me a look it isn't our custom she explained to fight to lose i sighed well now or never i decided hey boss you don't want to do that you're right but it's what i'm paid for now shut up one final thing alira i said her eyes narrowed i guess she picked up something from the tone of my voice and that is i still work for marolan he pays me and i therefore owe him a certain amount of loyalty what you propose doing is in direct violation of his wishes i won't let you do it and just like that even as i finished speaking pathfinder was in her hand its point level with my chest she measured me coolly with her eyes do you think you can stop me jerang i matched her gaze probably not i admitted what the hell looking at her i could see that she was prepared to kill me at once if you do alira loyoche will kill your cat no response sheesh sometimes i think alira has no sense of humor at all i looked down the length of the blade two feet separated it from my chest and my soul which had once been her brother's i recall the time it seemed like ages now when i had been in a similar position with marolyn then as now my thoughts had turned to figuring out which weapon was closest a poison dart would be a waste of time my poison works fast but not that fast i'd have to hit a nerve fat chance i was going to have to go for a kill anything else wouldn't do my odds that time had been poor this time they were worse at least maroland didn't have his weapon out i looked back to her eyes a person's eyes are the first things that let you know when he is about to make a move i felt the hilt of the dagger up my right sleeve point out a sharp downward motion would be required and it would be in my hand an upward motion after that would have it on the way to her throat from this range i couldn't miss from this range neither could she i'd probably be dead before she was and they wouldn't be able to revivify me just say the word boss i'll be at her eyes before thanks but hold for now that last time roland had changed his mind about killing me because he'd had a use for me and i'd stopped just short of mortal insult this time i felt sure alira would not change her mind once she decided on a course of action she was as stubborn in pursuing it as i was after all i thought bitterly in an odd sort of way we were related i readied myself for action i would have to get the drop on her to have any chance at all so there was no point in waiting it was odd i realized that everything i'd been doing since i'd spoken to the demon had been directed either finding a way to kill malar or risking my life to prevent someone from solving my problem i timed my breathing and studied her ready now wait i stopped what the hell are you doing vlad kill alira be killed by her what by the great sea of chaos would that solve sure vlad sure good thinking all we need now is for you to kill a guest of marolans and the wrong one at that sure all we need now is for alira to be dead that would wait a minute i said i've got it you've got what she asked cooley she wasn't taking any chances on me she knew what a tricky bastard i was actually i said in a more normal tone of voice you've got it and what pray tell have i got a great weapon i said yes i certainly do she admitted not giving an inch a weapon i continued that is irrevocably linked to your soul she waited calmly for me to go on pathfinder still pointed straight at my heart i smiled and for the first time in days i actually meant it you aren't going to kill malar my friend he's going to kill you 16. the adding of a single thread changes the garment there was absolutely no question about it i was doing too much teleporting these last few days i forced myself to take a few minutes to relax at the teleport area for my office building then went charging up the stairs like a sir on the hunt i skimmed past my secretary before he had time to unload mundane business on me and said get cragar up here now i stepped into the office and plumped down time for some hard thinking by the time my stomach had settled the details of the plan were beginning to work themselves out timing would have to be precise but that was nothing new there were a few things i would have to check on to make sure they could be done but these i'd make sure of in advance and maybe i could find a way around any problems that turned up i realized that i was also going to have to depend a lot more on other people than i was at all comfortable with but life is full of risks i started taking off points when i realized that cragar was sitting there waiting for me to notice him i what's the news today cragar the rumor mill is about to explode it's leaking from several directions bad bad we aren't going to be able to keep this under our cloaks for very long there's too much going on and the bodies didn't help either bodies yeah two bodies turned up this morning both sorceress's left hand oh right one of them would be the one we discussed before yeah i don't know who the other one was my guess is that the demon found someone else who was spreading too many rumors could be was she killed with a single dagger blow to the heart he looked startled yeah she was how did you know and there was a spell on her to prevent revivification right right who are she vlad i never learned her name but she was just what you said a sorceress from the left hand she was involved in setting up and taking out marolan and he took it personally i didn't actually know that it would be single shot to the heart but that's how he was nailed and he does have a certain sense of poetic justice i see anything else worth noting he nodded yeah i wouldn't go outside today if i were you [Music] oh what did you hear it seems that the demon doesn't like you oh wonderful how did you find this out we have a few friends in his organization and they've heard rumors great has he hired anyone no way of being shorn but it wouldn't surprise me terrific maybe i'll invite him over for a friendly game of spin the dagger and let the whole thing get settled that way gregor snorted do you think i asked that he'll back off if we finish this malar business for him maybe probably in fact if we can do it in time that is before the word gets out too far from what i hear that isn't too long from now i guess the council members are starting to feel the bite of digging into their own purses they aren't going to be able to avoid giving an explanation too much longer that's all right they aren't going to have to he sat up suddenly you have something yeah nothing i'm horribly proud of but it ought to do the trick at least part of it what part is that the hard part what wait a minute i stood up and went over to the window i made an automatic glance down at the street below then opened the window loyoch see if you can find damar if you do ask him if he would mind putting in an appearance here for once loyoch didn't make any remarks as he left okay vlad so what is it get a message out that i would very badly like to see kyra then draw off a thousand gold from the treasury and bring it up here what just do it okay i'll explain everything later after everyone is here everyone how many should i figure on uh let me see five no six six should i rent a convention hall scram i settled back to wait and went over the plan again the rough spot as i saw it was whether or not kyra could pull off the switch of course if anyone could she could but it was going to be difficult even for her i suspected there was to be sure an even rougher spot but i tried to avoid thinking about that alarms and clang and everything else both psionic and audible went off all over the place i hit the floor rolling and had a dagger ready to throw as my receptionist came bursting in sword in one hand dagger in the other then i realized what had happened i saw damar floating cross-legged about three feet off the floor i was rather pleased that before he had time to uncross his legs and stand up or stand down as the case may be there were a total of four of my people in the office weapons drawn and ready i stood up re-sheathed my dagger and held my hand up false alarm i explained but good job damar was looking around him with an expression of mild interest on his face my receptionist was looking unhappy about putting his weapons away he broke right through our teleport blocks like they weren't even there he i know but it's all right never mind they stood for a moment then shrugged and left casting glances at damar who was now looking bewildered did you have teleport blocks up he said i didn't notice any i should have thought to have them turned off it doesn't matter thanks for showing up no problem what do you need more help old friend sit down if you wish i set an example by picking up my chair and sitting myself down in it how are you at illusions he considered this casting them or breaking them casting them can you do a good one quickly by quickly i assume you mean fast enough so that no one sees the intermediate stages is that right that and with little or no warm-up time how are you at it he shrugged how is kyra at stealing funny you should bring that up she should be here soon if i'm lucky oh really what's going on if you don't mind by asking hmm if it's all right with you i'd like to wait on the explanations until everyone shows up oh well that's fine with me i'll just meditate for a while and lifting his legs off the floor he closed his eyes and began to do so at that moment i heard loyoce tapping on the window i opened it he flew in and landed on my right shoulder he looked at damar hissed a hiss of puzzlement and looked away i reached out for contact with my wife found her honey could you come over to the office certainly i don't suppose you have work for me do you not exactly but the next thing to it vlad you've got something yep what is no i suppose you want to wait till i'm there right i'll be right over i repeated the process with alira who agreed to teleport in this time however i remembered to drop the protection spells before she arrived she looked around so this is your office it looks quite functional thank you it's small but it suits my humble lifestyle i see she noticed damar then who was still floating some three or four feet off the floor she rolled her eyes in a gesture that was remarkably like cotty's damar opened his eyes and stood up hello alira he said hello damar mind probed any tecla lately no he answered with a straight face did you have one that you wanted mind probed not at the moment she said ask me again next cycle i'll be sure to he probably would too i reflected if they were both still around then caught he arrived at that moment in time to avoid any further clashes between hawk and dragon she greeted alira warmly alira gave her a cheery smile and they went off into a corner to gossip the two of them had become close friends in recent months based in part on a mutual friendship with lady norithar no rathar was a dragon turned gereg turned dragon who had been caught his partner if you recall alira had been instrumental in returning to norithar her rightful place as a dragon lord well so had i but never mind that's another story it occurred to me then that no rathar was another one who would be somewhat caught in the middle by this whole thing her two best friends were going to have to try to kill each other and she had loyalties on both sides i put it out of my mind we were here to prevent her from having to make that choice kyra entered shortly followed by craig he handed me a large purse which i immediately turned over to kyra still another job flawed i ought to teach you the craft you could save a lot of time and money if you could do it on your own kyrah i said there aren't enough hours in the day for me to learn your art besides my grandfather doesn't approve of stealing are you willing to help me out in this it's in a good cause she absently weighed the purse no doubt able to tell within a few imperials how much was in it it is she said oh well i'll guess i'll help you out anyway she smiled her little smile and looked at the others in the room oh yes i said kyra this is alira e chiron we know each other interrupted alira they smiled at each other and i was surprised to note that the smiles seemed genuine for a while i'd been afraid that kyra had once stolen something of alera's friendships do turn up in the oddest places okay i said let's get down to business i think everyone knows everyone right there was no disagreement good let's get comfortable craig r had without my mentioning it made sure that there were six chairs in the room and had sent out for a good wine and six glasses these arrived and he went around the room making sure everyone's was full before sitting down himself demar disdained the chair preferring to float loyoch assumed his position on my right shoulder i began to feel a little nervous about the whole thing i had gathered in that room a master thief a high noble of the house of the hawk a dragon lord who traced her lineage back to chiron himself and a highly skilled assassin and cragar i was just a bit troubled who was i to use these people as if they were common gereg to be hired and sent out i caught alira's eye she was looking at me steadily and confidently caught he also was waiting patiently for me to describe how we were going to get out of this that's who i was of course caught his husband alira's friend and more and the one who knew possibly how to handle this situation i cleared my throat took a sip of wine and organized my thoughts my friends i said i would like to thank each of you for coming here and agreeing to help me out on this with some of you it is of course in your own best interest for one reason or another that this matter be favorably settled and to you i would like to add that i am honored that you are trusting me to handle it to those of you with no direct interest i am deeply grateful that you are willing to help me at all i give you my assurance that i won't forget this get to the point shut up as to the problem well most of you know what it is to one degree or another put simply a high noble in the gereg is under the protection of lord marolan and it is necessary that he be killed and not later than tomorrow at that or i paused for another sip of wine and for effect or events will occur to the severe detriment of some of us alira snorted at the understatement kyra chuckled the important thing to remember is the time limit for reasons that i would prefer not to go into we have only today and tomorrow today would be much better but i'm afraid that we're going to have to take today to iron out difficulties and to practice our parts now it is important to some of us i looked quickly at alira but her face betrayed no emotion that nothing be done which would compromise moreland's reputation as a host that is we can't do anything to this person melar while he is a guest at castle black nor can we force him to leave by threats or by magic such as mind control i looked around the room i still had everyone's attention i think i found a method allow me to demonstrate what i have in mind first so we can get the hard part down before i go on with the rest of it craig stand up for a moment please he did so i came around the desk and drew my rapier his eyebrows arched but he said nothing assume for a moment i said that you have weapons secreted about your person at every conceivable point he smiled a little assume hell draw your blade i continued and get into a guard position he did so standing full forward with his blade pointed straight at my eyes level with his own head his blade was a lot heavier and somewhat longer than mine and it formed a straight line from his eyes to mine his palm was down his elbow out there was a certain grace apparent although i still consider the eastern on guard position to be more elegant i stood for a moment then attacked simulating the dragaran move for a straight head cut i came at his head just below the line of his blade giving me a sharp angle up he made the obvious parry dropping his elbow so that his sword also angled up even more sharply than mine also the strong of his blade was matched against the weak of mine this lined him up very well for a cut down at my head however before he could take it i moved in and i felt something strike my stomach lightly i looked down and saw his left hand there had this been a real fight there would have been a dagger clutched in that hand had we been alone he would probably have used a real dagger and avoided hitting me with it but he wasn't keen on letting all of these people in on where he kept his extra blades i resumed a normal position saluted him and sheathed my blade where i asked did you get the dagger from left forearm sheath he said with no hesitation good is there anywhere else you could have gotten it from that would have worked as well he looked thoughtful for a moment then he said i was assuming a spring-loaded type of forearm sheath set for left hand use if he has it set for a right hand draw which is just as common then i'd expect a simple waist sheath would be the one he'd go for either way it would be fast i can use the fact that the whole left side of your body is undefended and i can attack with the same motion i draw with an upper thigh sheath would mean dropping my arm lower than i have to there isn't any reason to go crossbody and anything else is worse i nodded okay caughty anything to add or do you agree she thought for a moment then shook her head no he's right it would be one of those two good cragar i want you to secure two more gaunty daggers he looked surprised for a moment then shrugged okay how strong do you want them strong enough for anyone to tell that they are morganti but not so strong that they are apparent when they're sitting in their sheaths okay okay i can find a couple like that and let me guess you want one to be the right size for a waist sheath and the other to be the right size for a forearm sheath you've got it let me see for a minute i had looked very closely for the weapons melar was carrying but i hadn't been so much concerned with how big they were is where they were i tried to remember where was that little bulge ah yes and when he had turned from talking to the hawklord i had seen how much hilt from the waste sheath right it looked like a standard bone hilt how long a blade would make it balance right and how wide i'd have to guess but i felt i could come pretty close waist sheath i announced overall length approximately 14 inches of which half is blade just a fraction over an inch wide at the widest forearm sheath call it nine inches overall the blade is about five and a half inches long and about three quarters of an inch wide near the guard i stopped any problem he looked uncomfortable i don't know vlad i should be able to get them but i can't count on it i'll talk to my supplier and see what he has but you're being damn precise i know do the best you can remember they don't have to be untraceable this time that will help good i turned to kyra now the big question can you lighten malar of a pair of daggers without his noticing and more of a problem without his bodyguard noticing i'm referring of course to the waist and forearm daggers she just smiled and answer okay now can you return them again can you put them back without his noticing her brows came together return them i don't know i think so maybe i take it you mean substituting two new ones for the ones he has right i nodded and i added remember that they're going to be more gaunty daggers so they have to stay unnoticeable during the switch she brushed it off if i can do it at all the fact that they're morganti won't make any difference she took on a vacant expression for a moment and i noticed her hand twitching as she mentally went through the motions that would be needed the waist dagger she said finally can be done about the other one she continued to look thoughtful vlad do you know if he has a spring-loaded mechanism for the left hand or just a reverse right hand draw setup i thought about it i brought up my memory of seeing him again and the bulge that had to be that blade but i couldn't quite pin it down i don't know i'm sure he has something i mean one or the other but i just can't tell which one hmm it just occurred to me that if he has the reverse draw type he won't use it for what we're talking about doing so it really doesn't matter we can assume say vlad said craig r suddenly remember that he's been trained as a master swordsman that means he'll figure on fighting sword and dagger chances are he's got the spring mechanism so he can just twist his wrist and have a blade pop into his left hand i nodded kyra said do you have a forearm sheath vlad it made me uncomfortable to discuss it but i realized what she had in mind and it was a reasonable question i nodded spring or right-hand draw right hand draw i said she stood up those are easier she said but that will make up for the fact that you'll be watching for it let's see what i can do she crossed in front of coty and craigar and stood in front of my desk she set her wine glass down a few inches from my own i was holding it loosely and the cuff was open a little which should work to her advantage i kept my eyes on my arm and her hand where she set the glass down so far as i could tell her hand never came closer than three inches from mine she walked back to her chair and sat down again how was that she asked i pulled back my sleeve and checked the sheath it held the same dagger it always had fine i said except for the little matter that i stopped she was smiling that smile of hers that i knew so well she reached into her cloak pulled out a dagger and held it up i heard a gasp and saw craig staring at it he gave a quick twist to his left wrist and suddenly a knife appeared in his hand he looked at it and his mouth dropped open he held it as if it were a poisonous snake he closed his mouth again swallowed and handed the dagger back to cairo she returned cragars to him misdirection she explained i'm convinced said cragar me too i said kyra looked pleased i suddenly felt a lot better this thing might actually work i saw the whole thing boss sure you did loyoch good i said now alira did you see that stroke i made at cragar with a bind following it yes can you make the exact same attack i suspect so she answered dryly okay i'll work on it with you it's going to have to be perfect she nodded i turned to caughty you're going to have to do a simple take out a particular fashion very quick very quiet and very unnoticeable i'll be providing a distraction which should help somewhat but we have to be absolutely sure that no one sees you do it or mellow will be alerted too soon and the whole thing blows up can i kill the guy no problem your target is an uninvited guest so anything that happens to him is his problem that makes things easier i don't think i'll have any difficulty remember he's a damn good sorcerer and you aren't going to have much time to check him over so i eat sorcerers for breakfast he'll have to cook me up one sometime she smiled slightly does he have any protective spells up at the moment i looked over at alira who had checked the two of them out after i had left her no she said they're both good enough to get defenses up quickly if they have to but i guess they don't want to call attention to themselves by using spells in castle black unless they actually have to you keep referring to they said kyra which one am i going to be taking out that's just the problem i said we don't know it will be whichever one is on malar's left and we don't know which one that will be does that present a problem she gave me what i call her i know something you don't know smile and made a dagger appear in her right hand she spun it in the air caught it and made it disappear i held myself answered damar i said turning to him you're going to have to throw an illusion at me it's going to have to be fast thorough and undetectable damar looked suddenly doubtful undetectable marolyn will be able to tell that i'm throwing a spell in his castle no matter how subtle i am marolyn won't be there so you don't need to worry about him it does however have to be good enough so that a top-notch sorcerer who will be there doesn't notice it of course he'll be rather busy at the time damar thought for a minute how long does the illusion have to stay on about five seconds no problem then good then that's everything now here's the plan i like it vlad said craig up to the teleport that leaves you in a pretty miserable position doesn't it why don't we go back to the original plan that you worked up with alira at that point you aren't thinking it through i told him we're really pulling an elaborate hoax it has to happen fast enough for mallard to act while he's disoriented and confused in fact we're going to have to make him panic someone like malar isn't going to panic easily and it isn't going to last very long if we give him time to think it through he'll realize what happened and just teleport back we'll be right back where we started do you think asked craigar that we can get maroland to put up a teleport block around castle black so he can't come back there or maybe alira can do it alira isn't going to be in any condition to put up or keep up a teleport block if you remember and if moreland is there to do it he'll interfere in the earlier part of the plan and we won't be able to bring it off at all what about said caughty letting moreland in on it from the beginning alira answered for me he'd never permit me to do what i'm going to do even if he agreed with the rest which he wouldn't by the way why not because he's morally when this is over if it works he'll agree that it was a fine thing to do but in the meantime he'll try to stop it if he can what do you mean coty asked about his not permitting you to do what you're going to do just what i said even if he wasn't involved in any other way he'd at least try to stop that part why if you aren't in any danger i never said reply to lyra softly that i wouldn't be in any danger caught he looked at her sharply i don't pretend to understand great weapons but if it isn't safe nothing is safe this is a better chance than i'd get if i did something that forced maroland to kill me caught he looked troubled but alira your soul so what i think i have a good chance of surviving and this leaves marolan with his honor intact and the problem solved the other way marolyn and i both end up worse off with no chance at all for things to work out right this is our best chance caughty still looked unhappy but she didn't say anything more on the subject craig said what about demar throws a second illusion so i can get in on it no good i said who's going to do the teleport then we can't do it ourselves remember because that's using magic against a guest at castle black i'm convinced that it will be one of the two bodyguards who does the teleport so they can make it untraceable at the same time even if milan asks you to do it i looked at alira who nodded even then she said he has to leave under his own power or by the hand of one of his own people or morolan will almost certainly take offense well i suppose but there has to be some way that we can get help to you i shrugged sure it could be that they don't get their trace blocks up fast enough so you could find me then and i expect that alira will be able to find me with pathfinder after she recovers i carefully didn't add if she recovers and how long said craigar will that take who can say said alira nothing like this has ever been done before so far as i know caughty looked grim and there isn't any way we're going to be able to find you ourselves well i said it would be nice if you tried but i'm sure that some kind of block will be put up and the guy doing it is good without having pathfinder you'll have to spend quite a while breaking down his spell caughty looked away from what i hear vlad you aren't in the same class with him as a fighter i'm aware of that but i fight eastern style remember and my intention is to take him before he even knows that i'm not who i'm supposed to be which reminds me said alira if it does come down to a fight you're going to have to keep him busy the whole time i expect that he'll take care of that i said dryly but why because if he realizes what has just happened and the way you spoke of him he will he'll just teleport right back to castle black if you give him the chance to great you're right i admitted he probably will how long will it take him do you think to do the teleport if i'm right in my assessment it will take him only two or three seconds so i can't allow him more than two seconds of breathing time during the fight i shrugged that's all right as i said i don't expect him to allow me any breathing time if it comes down to a fight but i'm hoping it won't by the way said krager what happens if he turns to you and tells you to teleport him out i'm hoping he'll ask the other guy which is a 50 50 chance if he does turn to me i'll do a dumb and stupid look and pretend that i'm in a state of shock that should be believable damar snapped his fingers the necromancer he said she won't have to trace the teleport she can use her own ways of getting to you not without psionic contact i said and chances are that whatever blocks they put up against tracing the teleport will block out general tracing spells as well and that means that you won't be able to contact me and i won't be able to contact you oh said damar well i asked the room in general can anyone think of any alternatives anything i might have missed there was silence i didn't think so i said all right that's what we've got let's get to work craig are left to procure the daggers the others went off to practice their parts i went into the weapons closet and found two identical knives they were long thin stilettos with seven inches of blade i picked one up and sharpened it carefully spending over an hour on it i wouldn't have to coat this one with non-reflective black paint i decided since there wasn't going to be much sneaking around involved here after i had it in my hand it isn't that i'm not willing to use any weapon i can get at to finish a job it's just that i feel that i'm better off if i have a blade in mind from the beginning and know it exactly that is why i picked out two identical weapons after sharpening the one i wouldn't touch it again until i left for castle black tomorrow that way it would have very little if any association with me since it had so little of my feel about it i could safely leave it right at the scene this is much safer than being caught later with an army since there is no way to disguise the link between murder weapon and victim i picked up the duplicate felt the weight and balance and held it for a while i took a few cuts and lunges with the thing in either hand and then concentrated for a while and using my left hand with it i drew my rapier and fenced a little practicing flipping it at a target on the wall between perry and raposte in fact i would never plan on throwing a knife at someone if this were a standard job but in this case it might be necessary i took out a few pieces of wood then and set them against the wall and plunged the knife into them several times alternating strokes i used every type of attack i could think of each several times i was satisfied it was a good blade not very good for cutting but it was unlikely that the death blow would be a cut it threw well enough although not perfectly and it fit very well into my hand for any kind of stabbing motion that i was likely to make i picked out a sheath for it and after some thought secured it to the outside of my left leg just above the knee the knife was a bit too long to be concealed effectively but my cloak would cover it up pretty well and it was perfectly placed for maximum speed of draw if i were fencing well no around the back of my neck would have been better for that but then i'd have it in my hand in somewhat of an overhand position which wouldn't be as good as an underhanded grip for stabbing in the middle of a bind for example loyoch watched my preparations in silence for a while then he said there is one problem with your plan boss that being the distraction part what about it if i'm busy distracting people that means i'm not alone when you take off i know well i don't like it to be perfectly honest with you old friend neither do i seventeen no matter how subtle the wizard a knife between the shoulder blades will seriously cramp his style every citizen of the dragaran empire has a permanent link to the imperial orb which circles the head of the empress with colors that change to reflect the sovereign's mood at the moment this one link serves many functions at the same time perhaps the most important one to most people is that it allows the use of the power from which the great sea of amorphia as distinct from the lesser one that adron created which provides the energy for sorcery to anyone skilled enough this power can be shaped molded and used for just about anything depending of course on the skill of the user one of its less important functions to most people is that one need only concentrate briefly in the proper way and one knows precisely what time it is according to the imperial clock i have i will admit some small skill and sorcery i mean i can start a fire with it or teleport if i have to or kill someone with it if he isn't very good and i get lucky on the other hand i only rarely have a use for it but the imperial clock has been a friend that i could count on for years eight hours past noon every other day and today was one merlin inspected his guard positions personally he would go outside of castle black and teleport from tower to tower speaking with the guards and checking them over there was rarely if ever anything to correct or to criticize but it was very effective for troop morale it was also one of relatively few things that moreland did with any regularity eight hours past noon on this day the day after we had met in my office moreland was inspecting his guard positions and so was not in the banquet hall of castle black i was demar was there as well standing next to me caughty was around somewhere as was kyra alira was somewhere outside the hall waiting i tried to be inconspicuous i didn't drink anything because i didn't want anyone to notice that my hand was trembling i looked around the room for a while and finally spotted malar cairo was standing about 10 feet away from him to his rear and looking in my direction i decided that i must at least in part be succeeding in being inconspicuous since none of my acquaintances had yet seen me good if we could just hold on to that kind of luck for another couple of minutes it wouldn't matter okay relax hands shoulder muscles loosen up stomach unknot neck ease up knees loose your stiffness it's time to go i nodded to kyra she nodded back i was no longer nervous from where i stood i had a plain view of kyra as she walked past one of milar's bodyguards reached for a glass of wine past him and walked away i never saw her make the transfer in fact i wondered whether it had been made at all until kyra caught my eye and nodded i looked at her right hand which was at her side she had two fingers out the rest in a fist both weapons planted good i let my eyes acknowledge here we go i said to myself i glanced around the room then this was the one part that i didn't have planned out because i couldn't know who would be here from one day to the next or one moment to the next over near a table about twenty feet away from me i spotted the hawk lord who had been speaking to malar the other day perfect i owed him one i moved over toward him planning my part i observed the contents of the table and fitted it in i took enough time getting there to give loyosh his instructions in detail know your part loyoche worry about your own lines boss i'm just doing what comes naturally i leaned on the table briefly raised my nobility a couple of notches and said i say hand me a glass of that kyreth437 will you for a minute i was afraid i'd overdone it when he actually started reaching for it but then he caught himself and turned to face me fully his voice and eyes cold i don't fetch for gereg he announced or easterners good he was mine now i pretended amusement oh indeed i responded turning on my best sardonic smile nervous about serving your betters eh well that's quite all right he glared then and his hand went to his sword hilt then remembering where he was i suppose he let go of it i must ask merolan he said why he allows inferiors to share his accommodations it occurred to me that i should encourage him to do so just to see how long he lasted but i had a part to play do that i said i must admit to being curious as well let me know how it is that he justifies your presence here among gentle folk there were a few people watching us now wondering whether the hawk would challenge me or simply attack i didn't really care as it happened he felt the crowd watching too do you think he said to claim equality with dragarans at least i replied smiling he smiled back having mastered his temper what a quaint notion a dragaran would not think to speak to anyone that way unless he was ready to back it up with steel i laughed aloud oh always anytime i said very well my seconds will call upon you in the morning i pretend it's a prize they will i said my seconds will call upon you in the alley i turned my back on him and walked away what came the enraged cry behind me i had taken three steps when i heard the sound of steel being drawn i continued walking briskly now loyoche on my way boss i felt the gereg leave my shoulder as i continued walking smoothly and evenly away from the hawklord now at this point was when i was going to need all of the skills kyra had taught me years before i heard a cry behind me and the shouts of it bit me and help and get a healer and where's the danger egg and look he's dying there would be no eyes on me i knew as i walked toward malar his bodyguards i noted didn't seem especially alert although they of all the crowd must have recognized the distraction for what it was melar's face was calm i was taken with sudden admiration for him this was what he'd been expecting he figured to die here and now and was ready for it his bodyguards knew and weren't making any effort to stop it could i have stood there like that waiting for perhaps a morganti dagger in my back not a chance i smiled to myself he was about to get a surprise however i continued toward him coming around the back i was aware of the crowd around me as i blended in with it but no one was aware of me i had to all intents and purposes vanished the art of the assassin it would take an exceptional skill to spot me at this point a skill that was beyond even the two bodyguards i was sure malar stood unmoving awaiting the touch of a blade he'd been flirting with a young female salmoth who is playing dumb tecla maiden while pretended he believed it she was looking at him curiously now because he'd stopped speaking and amazingly he actually began to smile his lips curled up into the barest thinnest smile now alira here i come may vera protect thy soul lady who was my sister the smile faded from malar's face as a shrill drunken voice rang out through the room where is he cried elira show me the tecla who would dishonor my cousin's name a path cleared in front of alera i got a glimpse of the necromancer a shocked look on her face it is rare to see her shocked she would probably have done something but she was just too far away speaking of too far away loyoch i'm busy damn it they won't let me go i'm trying to get over there but forget it like we discussed we just can't risk it stay where you are but no i moved in as alira did she from the front and i from the back of course good luck boss i moved into position and noticed a sudden tension in melar's back he must have recognized the naked blade in alira's hand as morganti i'm sure the whole room was aware of it i was in position so i could hear everything he said i heard him curse under his breath not her damn it he hissed to his bodyguards stop her the two of them moved forward to bar elira's path but she was the quickest from her upraised left hand a green scintillating light flashed out then i saw something that i'd heard about but had never actually seen before the energy she sent at them split forked into two bolts which caught the two bodyguards full in the chest they were flung backwards and fell heavily if we'd given them time to think they would certainly have realized that alira couldn't be very drunk to throw a spell like that they were both good enough to block part of the effects and they began to pick themselves up and at that moment caughty my wife who had once been called the dagger of the gereg struck silently swiftly and with perfect accuracy i don't think anyone else in the room would have seen it even if they hadn't all been busy staring at alira who was waving pathfinder around drunkenly over her head but one of the two fallen bodyguards as he tried to pick himself up tried to cry out found that he no longer had a larynx to do it with and fell back and then i felt a tingling sensation as damar's spell took effect demar threw his second spell just as quickly and the dead bodyguard became invisible i stood up in his place i matched paces with my partner but we saw we couldn't get there in time i strongly suspect that the other fellow was a great deal more disturbed by this than i was malar also realized that we would be too late to save him he now had two choices he could allow alera to kill him thus dying amid the ruins of 300 or more years of planning or he could fight alira his sword was out in a flash and he took his guard position as alira swayed toward him he certainly knew by now that he was going to have to kill her if he could his mind i knew would be working hard now planning his blow estimating her timing and realizing gratefully that he could kill her without making it permanent if he was careful he had to make sure that she died but he must avoid any blow to the head he fell back a step my lady you're drunk he began but alira struck before he could finish pathfinder swung in a tight arc straight for the right side of his head if he'd been any slower or the attack had been any more difficult to parry it would have been all over for milar right there but he made the obvious parry and alira stepped in to bind he was too good a swordsman to miss the obvious opening and he didn't the back of my mind noted that he did indeed have a spring mechanism for his left sleeve dagger there was a flash of motion by his left hand and his dagger caught her in the abdomen he must have realized even before it struck her that something was wrong as it hit i could feel within my mind the sentience that identifies a morganti weapon alira screamed it may or may not have been genuine but it was one of the most horrendous screams i have ever heard i shuddered to hear it and to see the look on her face as the soul-eating blade entered her body melar moved forward and tried vainly to draw it out but its own power held it in as alira slumped to the floor her screams dying away the blade came free in melar's hand there was a moment of silence and a lack of motion melar stared down at the knife the other bodyguard and i stood next to him frozen as everyone else realization grew in melar that he had just thrown away any claimed protection he could have had from marolan anyone could kill him now with no recriminations he would be feeling his whole plan falling into pieces and no doubt could only think of one thing escape try to get out of this mess and come up with something else and in this moment of weakness of near panic the final stroke came administered by demar to complete his feeling of disorientation and push him over the edge melar felt the mind probe hit and cried out i didn't know at that time whether he was sufficiently disoriented that his mental defenses were down the mind probe might have worked or might have failed but it worked as far as i was concerned melar turned to me get us out of here he yelled it was unfortunate that he chose to look at me instead of the other bodyguard but i had known that it could happen i didn't look back at him just stared straight ahead he saw no doubt the stunned and stupefied expression i was wearing i heard the unmistakable note of panic in his voice now as he turned the other bodyguard the crowd was beginning to react and i sincerely hoped that sethra the younger or the necromancer didn't get to him before we were able to get out of here move he said to the other bodyguard get us out at that moment i think something must have clicked in him and he turned back to me his eyes growing wider still either demar spell was fading so i no longer looked like the bodyguard i was imitating or he noticed a mannerism that i didn't perform right he was backing away from me as the walls vanished around us as best i could i ignored the nausea that accompanied the teleport and made a fast decision if he hadn't realized that something was wrong if he had happened to turn to the other one first there would have been no problem i would have simply killed him and finished off the bodyguard as best i could now however it was different i had time to take out either malar or the other bodyguard but i couldn't get both before they got in a cut or two at me which one should i go for the bodyguard would be setting up a teleport block and a spell to prevent tracing while malar had already drawn his blade also malar was closer however i had to make sure that malar was killed permanently as i've said it is no easy thing to kill someone in such a way that he can't be revivified with him ready and facing me it wouldn't be as easy as it would have been if i'd had a free shot at the back of his head what if i took him out but wasn't able to make it permanent and then the bodyguard were to nail me the latter would just teleport again with malar's body and get him brought back at his leisure if i went for the guard i could take the time and do a thorough job on malar and not have to worry about malar skipping off on me what decided me however was the fact that the bodyguard was a sorcerer that gave him a bigger advantage over me in this situation than i liked i didn't stop to think about any of this it just flashed through my mind as i moved i threw myself backward and as my right hand went for my blade my left hand found three poison darts i flipped them toward the bodyguard and mentally recited a short prayer to vera melar's first swing which occurred just about then missed i had managed to get just out of range gods he was strong i was on the ground by then but i had my rapier out i rolled to my left and came up in time to parry just barely a cut that would have split my skull open my arm rang from the blow of his heavier sword and i heard the welcome sound of a body falling off to my left the bodyguard was out of it at least thank you vera at that point i first became aware of my surroundings we were outside in a jungle area that would put us somewhere to the west of audra lanka which meant at least 300 miles from castle black they weren't going to be able to trace the teleport in time to help me then not if the sorcerer bodyguard had been able to get his spell off i would have to assume that i was on my own melar struck again i fell back as fast as i could hoping like hell that there was no obstruction behind me at the best of times i was nowhere near as good a fighter as malar and at this moment my stomach was churning and it was taking a great deal of effort just to keep my eyes focused on him on the other hand an inferior swordsman can hold off a superior swordsman for quite a while as long as he can keep retreating i could only hope that he would let up enough to give me a chance to throw my dagger at him and that i was able to hit him with it without being nailed at the same time at that moment i would have let him get through to me if i could have been sure of doing a complete job on him in exchange i looked for the chance in fact he however had no intention of giving me any such opportunity whether he guessed my intentions or not i don't know but he didn't let up for an instant he kept hacking at my head and advancing his left hand found a knife i felt a cold shiver run up my spine as i realized that he was now holding the morganti blade that i had set him up with one of the two we gave him to make sure that he used one on alira he noticed it then and his eyes widened for the first time he smiled it was a very unpleasant smile to be on the wrong end of the same could be said for the dagger somehow at that moment the irony of the whole thing was lost on me i kept falling back the only thing that had kept me alive so far i knew was the fact that he wasn't used to a fencer who presented only the side of his body rather than the full forward of the sword and dagger dragaran style he of course was fighting full forward with a dagger up in a position to strike or parry or cast spells with he wasn't about to cast spells with it and he didn't need to parry because i hadn't had a chance to attack yet not even a simple repost and now he had two blades to my one also he was a good enough swordsman that it wouldn't take him long to learn how to deal with my kind of sword play he was quite content meanwhile to keep me busy until i ran up against a tree or tripped on a log as i inevitably would in this jungle then it would be all over he'd come in with a dagger and my soul would go to feed a sentience in nine inches of cold steel he spoke for the first time it was all a trick from the beginning wasn't it i didn't answer not having the breath i could see it now he continued it might have worked too if you were a better swordsman or if you had nailed me when you had the chance instead of going for my friend back there that's right you bastard i thought rub it in but as it is he continued they should know the truth by now at castle black if i can figure it out from here they can certainly figure it out from there where they have the body and the blade to look at what's to stop me from just going back there i stopped and tried to bind him parrying strongly he took a cut at me with the dagger however and i had to jump back i'd had no chance for an attack it is unfortunate it went on that i can teleport or it might have worked anyway it takes you two or three seconds to teleport my friend and i don't intend to give you two or three seconds sorry but i don't psych he must have realized that too because he stopped talking i managed to put my left hand on the stiletto i'd selected to destroy him with and i pulled it out i cradled it in my hand like a gireg holds her egg i thought very briefly about trying to flip it at him but to do that i'd have to turn full forward if i did that he'd have me before i could even loose it and my head would be rolling on the ground for a moment then i considered that if i fell to his sword the dagger couldn't hurt me it requires a living soul to feed such a blade my soul would be safe and just maybe i could take him with me i threw away the idea and stepped back again no he was going to have to do it all himself that much i'd take from him i was not about to let him cut me down and leave me here for the wild girag to feed on my corpse to complete the irony of the situation geraig wild girag i felt a sudden breeze cool against the back of my neck reminiscent of the feel of a knife's edge and of other things a memory came back to haunt me from years ago this same jungle it was could i i was just distracted enough by the thought that i almost missed a parry i jumped backward and his deflected sword ripped into my side i felt the blood start to flow and it began to hurt vera be thanked my stomach was settling down witchcraft is similar to sorcery in many ways but uses one's own psionic powers rather than an external energy source the rituals and incantations were used to force the mind down the right path and to direct the power how much were they really necessary my mind reached back back back to the time i had summoned the gereg who was loyoch's mother from these very jungles his mother was quite likely long dead but i didn't need her could i do it again probably not come to me blood of my house join me hunt with me find me i almost stumbled and was almost killed but didn't and was not what the hell was it come on brain think as my grandfather had taught me long ago i let my arm and my wrist and even my fingers do all the work of keeping me alive my mind had other things to do the sword arm would just have to take care of itself something something about wings no winds that was it winds let the winds of jungle's night something perhaps the look on milar's face warned me of the tree behind me somehow i stepped around it without being spitted stay the hunter in her flight i felt myself weakening blood loss of course i didn't have time for that evening's breath to witch's mind i wondered whether loyos would ever speak to me again i wondered whether anyone would be able to speak to me again let our fates be intertwined malar changed tactics suddenly and his sword thrust at my chest instead of chopping at my head i was forced into a clumsy parry and he caught me with the tip was that a rib cracking or just a good imitation i brought up my blade before the dagger could sweep down and made a leap backward he followed immediately geraig do not pass me by as he closed perhaps just a touch too cockley i tried a full extension stop thrust trigger and swordplay has nothing like it dropping to one knee and cutting up under his sword arm he was as surprised as i that my first defensive move got through and it gave me time to get back before he countered he bled a little from high on his right side it was too much to hope for that this would affect his sword arm but it gave me more time show me where thy soul doth lie my side screamed with pain as i stepped back still further each parry caused red flashes before my eyes and i felt that i was near to blacking out i felt drained too i mean drained i don't think i had ever put that much into a spell i moved back out of the way of another blow that almost slid open my belly he followed with a cut with the dagger that was almost faster than i could see but i was moving back so it missed i stepped back again before he could set himself what was there come on brain mind relax be receptive listen who came the thought to my forebrain one who needs you i managed as i almost stumbled i hung onto my consciousness with everything i had what have you to offer oh demon goddess i don't have time for this i wanted to start crying to tell them all to just go away he caught my blade with the dagger and the sword swept down i squirmed to the side made it long life oh gereg and fresh red meat with no struggle or search and sometimes the chance to kill dragarans all in all one hell of a time to be bargaining malar did a phillip with his wrist that should have been impossible with that heavier sword he connected lightly with the side of my head as heavily as he could given what he was doing and as lightly as it was possible for him to considering the size the weapon he had but i still didn't black out i took a chance then because i had to and lunged cutting down at his forehead he stepped back and parried with his dagger i backed up another step before the sword came sweeping down at me again it occurred to me that even if the gereg should choose to respond it might be too far away to do me any good and what do you ask melar was smiling again he could see that i was going and all he had to do was wait he continued pressing the attack for the future aid in my endeavors and your friendship and your wisdom for the present save my life once again mellar struck at the side of my head and got through there was a ringing in my ears and i felt myself start to fall i saw him move in raising the dagger and grinning broadly and then he was turning startled as a winged shape struck at his face he moved back and took a swipe with his sword missed i dropped my sword and caught myself with my right hand i heaved myself up from there until i was standing barely mellard took another swing of the gereg i transferred the dagger to my right hand and fell forward walking being somewhat beyond my powers at that point my left hand grasped his left arm his dagger arm and swung him around he turned and i saw panic in his eyes and his dagger began to arc toward my neck i tried to hold back his right arm which was swinging forward with the sword but it slipped from my grasp i thrust straight in then with everything that was left in me the stiletto took him in the left eye burying itself to the hilt in his brain he screamed then a long whale of despair and he lost interest in removing my head i saw the light of life go out in his right eye and i might even have rejoiced if i'd been capable of it i was screaming then as well as we twisted toppled fell we landed on each other with me face up and the only thing still in the air was his lifeless arm holding a living dagger and a fist that wouldn't let go i watched it unable to do anything as it fell fell fell and hit the ground next to my left ear i could feel its frustration and had a crazy moment of sympathy for any hunter that loses its prey by such a small margin a thought then came into my mind and set up housekeeping i accept it said just what i need i remember thinking another wise ass your egg i didn't quite lose consciousness although i don't think i was completely conscious either i remember lying there feeling damned helpless and watching the gereg take bits out of malar's corpse at some time in there various animals came up and sniffed me i think one of them was a nathyra i'm not sure about the others each time the gereg looked up from its meal and hissed a warning they backed off eventually perhaps half an hour later i heard a sudden disturbance the gereg looked over hissed and i looked too alira was there holding pathfinder with her were caughty and cragar and loyoch the other gereg was female she hissed at loyoche the female is dominant with the gereg the matter is still up in the air caught he rushed to me with a cry and sat down she carefully placed my head on her lap and began stroking my forehead alira began inspecting and treating my various wounds i'd be hard-pressed to say which helped more but it was nice getting all the attention craig assisted alira after verifying that the two corpses were indeed corpses loyoch had found the other gereg they were looking at each other alira said something then i think it was about demar's mind probe having worked but i wasn't really listening so i'm not sure loyo spread his wings and hissed the female spread her wings further and hissed louder they were silent for a while then exchanged hisses again i tried to communicate with loyoce but found nothing at first i thought that it was because my mind was still too exhausted from the spell i'd done but then i realized that it was because loyoce was blocking me out he'd never done that before i got a sinking feeling suddenly the two of them rose into the air i lacked the strength to look up and follow their flight but i knew what must be happening tears blinded me and desperation gave me a small loan against my future energy holdings i tried to force my way into his mind and i sent out my desperate call trying to pierce the barriers he had erected against me no come back i think i called caughty's face above me began to waver as my body and mind gave up their fight at last admitted defeat and the darkness that had been hovering over and around me finally found entry nevertheless the contact was as sharp and distinct as it had ever been sneaking under the gate even as it closed look boss i worked for you non-stop for more than five years now you'd think i could have a few days off for my honeymoon epilogue failure leads to maturity maturity leads to success on my terms this time the blue flame was quiet at this hour with three waiters a bus boy a dishwasher and three customers all of them were enforcers who worked for me all of them at one time or another had done work this time i faced the door and my back was against the wall i had a dagger out lying openly on the table next to my right hand i wished loyoce was back but he wasn't necessary this time i was making the rules and we were playing with my stones somewhere caughty and cragar were watching let him try anything anything at all sorcery ha no spell would go in this place that didn't have elira's approval try to bring in an assassin maybe if he wanted to pay for mario he could come up with something i'd worry about other than that however i wasn't about to get upset a face appeared in the doorway followed by another the demon had brought two bodyguards with him they stopped in the doorway and looked around being competent they saw how things were and spoke to the demon quietly for a while i saw him shake his head good he was smart and he was gutsy he was going to do it my way because he knew at this point that it was the only way it would get done he was too good a businessman not to realize that it had to get done i saw him signal his men to wait by the door and he came forward alone i rose as he reached me and we sat down at the same moment lord taltosh he said demon i said he looked at the dagger seemed about to speak and changed his mind at this point he could hardly blame me after all since i had requested the meeting i ordered the wine i chose a rare dessert wine made by the cerioli he spoke first while we waited for the wine to arrive i note that your familiar is missing he said i hope he isn't ill he isn't ill i said but thank you for asking the wine came i allowed the demon to approve it it's the little touches that make the fine host i sipped mine and let it flow down my throat cool and sweet but neither i see nor cloying that was why i'd chosen it it had seemed appropriate i was afraid the demon continued that he'd eaten something that had disagreed with him i chuckled i decided that i'd come to like this guy if we didn't kill each other first i take it the body has been found i said he nodded it's been found a bit but there isn't any harm in that certainly i agreed with his sentiments and he went on i received your message i nodded so i see i have what i claimed to all of it all of it he waited for me to go on i was enjoying it enough so that i didn't even mind the pain i felt from the events of the day before one reason that i'd arranged to have the place full of my people was that i didn't want to get out how much trouble i had walking in standing for the demon had cost me hiding that fact had cost me even more alira is good but it still takes time how did you get it he asked from his mind the demon arched his eyebrows i'm rather surprised he admitted i wouldn't have expected him to be subject to mind prones i have some good people working for me i told him and of course we caught him at a good time he nodded and sipped his wine i should tell you he said that as far as i'm concerned it's all over i waited for him to continue this was what i'd arranged the meeting for after all he took another sip of his wine to the best of my knowledge and belief he said choosing his words carefully no one in the organization has anything against you means you any harm or will profit from any harm that comes to you that last wasn't true in a literal sense but we both knew what he meant and he had his reputation to hold on to i didn't think he would lie to me about it i was satisfied good i said and allow me to say i hold no ill will over anything that happened or almost happened before i believe that i understand what was going on and there is no cause there for complaint on my part he nodded as for the other i went on if you send an escort over to my office say at the fourth hour past noon i'll be able to supply them with your goods to return to you he nodded his satisfaction at the arrangements there are a few other things he said such as he stared off into space for a moment and turned back to me certain of my friends are exceptionally pleased with the work you did yesterday i beg your pardon he smiled i mean the work your friend did yesterday yes go on he shrugged certain of them felt that perhaps a bonus is in order i see well that i'll gladly accept on my friend's behalf of course but before we go into that perhaps you will allow me to buy you dinner he smiled why yes that would be very kind of you i called the waiter over he was actually a lousy waiter but that was all right i think the demon understood more than our apartment more than my office the library at castle black has seemed like home base to me how many times in the past had maroland and i or marolan myself and alira or a host of others sat in this room and said some form of thank vera it's over thank vera it's over said alira i lay on my back on the lounge chair as i said alera was good but it takes time to heal completely my side still ached and my head gave me no end of trouble still in the three days since malar had passed from among the living and the two days since i had met with the demon to arrange for nine million gold to be returned and to ensure that no more attempts were going to be made on my life i had pretty well made the transition back to humanity caught he sat next to me gently brushing my forehead from time to time loyoch had returned and sat perched on my chest as near to the shoulder as my position allowed his mate took the other side i felt quite contented with life all in all merlin sat opposite me staring into his wine glass his long legs were stretched out in front of him he looked up what are you calling her he asked her name is rotza i said on hearing her name she leaned down and licked my ear caughty scratched her head loyoch hissed a jealous warning whereupon ratsa looked up hissed back licked loios under his snake like chin he sat back mollified my aren't we domestic said merlin i shrugged he continued to look at the female gereg curiously vlad i know as much about witchcraft as any easterner you must admit yes that's true and i don't see how you can have a second familiar i had always understood that the relationship between which and familiar is such that it is impossible for it to occur with more than one animal for that matter he continued i've never heard of making a familiar from any adult animal don't you have to acquire the thing as an egg in order to achieve the proper link loyoch hissed at marolan who smiled a little and cocked his head i'm calling you a thing that's who marolan said loyoce hissed again and went back to licking rotz's chin well marolyn i said why don't you find out for yourself you're a witch why don't you get a familiar i already have one he answered dryly he gently stroked the hilt of black wand and i shuddered involuntarily raza isn't really my familiar in any case i explained she's loyal she's mate but still she came to you i called for help and she heard we were able to strike a bargain similar to the one of which makes with the mother of his familiar for the egg but it wasn't exactly the same i did use the same spell or a close variant to achieve initial contact i admitted but that's where the similarity ends after i got contact we more or less just spoke i guess she liked me razza looked up at me and hissed i got the feeling that it was intended to be laughter but i'm not sure loyos broke in at that point look boss no one likes to be spoken of as if he isn't there okay sorry chum i stretched myself out enjoying the feeling that there was blood circulating and all those other good things i can't tell you how happy i was when those two let me know that they weren't going to kill each other though i summed up said alira you sure couldn't tell us then you were too busy going down for the third time was it that close i asked it was that close i shuddered caught he stroked my forehead gently it works both ways i guess i was also mightily pleased to see that you made it after all i didn't tell you before but i was plenty worried about that whole business i said you were worried said alira i still don't understand that alera said craigar who i discovered had been sitting next to her the entire time how is it that you survived the morganti dagger just barely said alira he shook his head when you first went over it you said it would work out but you never said how why do you want to try it i don't really recommend having your soul eaten as a form of entertainment just curious well basically it has to do with the nature of great weapons pathfinder is linked to me which really means it's linked to my soul when the dagger threatened to destroy me pathfinder acted to preserve me by drawing my soul into itself when the threat was gone i was able to return to my body and of course we had the necromancer standing by just in case there were problems she looked thoughtful for a moment it is an interesting perspective from in there she remarked it is a rather frightening one from out here put in marolan i thought we'd lost you alira smiled at him i'm not that easy to get rid of cousin in any case i said it all worked out yes said merulan i would imagine that you did rather well for yourself out of the affair in more ways than one i said i suppose said merlin i shook my head it isn't just the obvious it seems that certain parties were quite pleased with the return of the gold in addition to everything else i've been given responsibility for a somewhat larger area yeah said craig and you didn't even have to ask your friend to kill anyone for it i let that pass i should point out though said cragar that in actual fact you don't have any more responsibility than you did before i don't nope you'll just make more money i'm the one with more responsibility who do you think does all the work anyway loyoce i answered cragar snorted loyoch hissed a laugh you are hereby forgiven boss lucky me marolan was looking puzzled speaking of the gold reminds me of something how did you discover where it was demar took care of it i told him just before malar teleported me out demar did a mind probe on him it was the only time he could have had a chance of succeeding with malar completely disoriented he caught him with his psychic pants down you might say damar found out where he had hidden the gold and found out about the arrangements he'd made for the information about that sir to get out and of course it was the mind probe itself that finally broke down malar and sent him into a panic oh said merulan so you did find out about the information he had on the tsu yep i said and we suppressed it how did you do that asked merlin i looked over at craigar who had actually handled the matter he smiled a little it wasn't difficult he said malar had given it to a friend of his in a sealed envelope we picked up this friend brought him to the dock where he dumped milar's body and pointed out to him that there was no reason for him to keep the thing anymore we talked a little and he ended up agreeing best not to know anymore i decided what i don't understand craig r continued is why you didn't want the information to come out vlad what difference does it make to us there were a couple of reasons for it i told him for one thing i made it clear to a few sir lords i know that i was doing it it never hurts to have sir heroes owe you favors and the other reason was that alira would have killed me if i hadn't alira smiled a little but didn't deny it so vlad said marolyn are you going to retire now that you are wealthy you could certainly buy a castle out of town and turn properly decadent if you chose to i'd be curious i've never had the pleasure of seeing a decadent easterner i shrugged i may buy a castle somewhere since cotty's been wanting one and now we can afford a few luxuries like a higher title in the gereg but i doubt i'll retire why not you're rich are you retiring i asked him he snorted from what should i retire i've been professionally decadent for as long as i can remember well there is that say yes how about if we both retire what do you think about selling castle black i can give you a good price on it depend on it you said oh well just asking seriously though vlad have you ever thought about quitting the gireg i mean you don't really need them anymore do you ha i've thought about quitting the gerega great deal but so far i've always managed to be just a little bit quicker than whoever wanted me out or luckier said cragar i shrugged as for leaving voluntarily i don't know merlin looked at me carefully you don't actually enjoy what you do do you i didn't answer not really knowing at the time i mean did i especially now in my biggest reason my hatred for all things dragaran turned out not to have the cause i had thought it did or did it you know alira i said i'm still not really sure about this genetic inheritance through the soul i mean sure i felt something for it but i also lived through what i lived through and i guess that shaped me more than you'd think i am what i am in addition to what i was do you understand what i mean alira didn't answer she just looked at me her face unreadable an uncomfortable silence settled over the room as we all sat there with our thoughts cragar studied the floor caught he caressed my forehead marolyn seemed to be looking around for another subject he found one finally and broke the silence by saying there is still a thing that i fail to understand concerning you and ratzer what is that i asked as relieved as everyone else he studied the floor in front of the couch exactly how do you plan on housebreaking her i felt myself going red as the odor reached my nose and moreland riley called for his servants this has been an audible frontier's production of gereg written by steven brust narrated by bernard sotero clark producer mike charzek copyright 1987 by steven brust production copyright 2012 by audible inc if you enjoyed this audiobook be sure to download yendi by stephen brewst available today this audio program is presented by audible.com audible audio that speaks to you wherever you are

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Id: dFp9PBrvKSE

Length: 521min 1sec (31261 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 09 2021