Hawk

17

“Boss. The weapon.”

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

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

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

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

I had everyone’s attention again.

The Demon said, “Taltos. Well. What?”

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

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

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

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

Poletra said, “But you-”

“I?”

“You taught it to us!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But no point in dwelling on that.

“Will there be anything else, Count Szurke?”

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

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

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

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

“Boss, you did it!”

“Seems like.”

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

So that’s when they hit me.

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

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

“Boss? Was that-”

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

“Sorry, it was too brief.”

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

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

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

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

I kept thinking of stupid ways to die, as if, short of old age, there are any smart ways.

What would come next? I was also wondering where I’d miscalculated; why I was being attacked right when I figured I was all done with that. But I didn’t have a lot of attention to spare to working that out, and the implications of it being a sorcerous attack, or anything else. What would come next?

“Loiosh, see if you or Rocza can spot someone nearby who might be doing this.”

He didn’t reply, but they left my shoulders.

I drew Lady Teldra.

Lady, I don’t know what sort of sorcerous skill you have, but if you can manage to find out where that attack came from, it would be pretty damned helpful right now.

Nothing.

Wait. Was my attention being drawn in a direction, or was I imagining it?

“Loiosh, check off to the right, in the direction of those trees.”

Yes, I became convinced of it. The communication was strange, and not in language, but there was communication, and if I’d had time, I would have been pleased about that; maybe I’d even have smiled.

I started walking toward the spell. I tried to get a feel for how far it away it was, but I couldn’t get that. I kept walking, and I became aware that I was really, really angry. Angry enough to be stupid. Maybe angry at myself for whatever miscalculation I’d made so that after all of this, I was still a target. I don’t know. But I was angry, and if there was any way to do it, someone was going to be very sad.

“This way, Boss!”

I walked a little faster.

I came over a rise and there she was about fifty feet away from me and backing up. Radfall. She looked at Lady Teldra, and me, and abruptly vanished. Try to kill someone, and then disappear before facing the consequences? I mean, really, is that honorable?

She hadn’t teleported, though. I know what a teleport looks like, and it wasn’t that.

“Loiosh?”

“Yes, Boss. I have the scent. Should I-?”

“Not yet. Is she moving?”

“She just moved a few feet, and stopped. If you don’t want me to attack, I could always shit on her head.”

“Tempting, but let’s not call your presence to her attention just yet.”

“You never let me have any fun.”

What would she do? I looked around. There weren’t any heavy objects she could drop on my head, and there were no signs of a gathering storm that might produce a lightning strike that would miraculously hit me, and I was no longer standing next to the cliff. Boulders she could roll down on me? No, nothing nearby. What would her play be, now that she knew I had the amulet back on?

“She could surrender to us.”

“You’re not helping. I need to know where she is well enough to have Lady Teldra break the invisibility.”

“Can she do that? I mean, from a distance?”

“We’re about to find out.”

I wondered if the teleport block was still up. Probably. This would be a good time to have Morrolan come charging to the rescue, but even he can’t break through a good block without a lot of work, and I had no way to reach him.

Maybe the block, in fact, was why the sorceress was still there? Maybe she didn’t want to do anything to me, but had no way to leave? Or maybe she had a plan. Or maybe she was trying to come up with one, and I needed to do something now before she managed.

Maybe, maybe, maybe. You can die of maybe.

You’re way ahead of me, aren’t you? You’re sitting there, drinking your-whatever that is-trying not to smirk, and thinking, That poor idiot Vlad. How could he not see what was coming? Well let me tell you, smart guy, it’s a lot harder when you’re in the middle of it than it is just hearing about it, all right?

So, yeah, there I was, concentrating on the invisible sorceress, when the invisible assassin was coming up behind me. He was good; I didn’t see him, I didn’t hear him. Neither did Loiosh. Normally, something as simple as an invisibility spell wouldn’t have accomplished anything, you know? But remember how I said you have to take time to set something up to do it right? I still believe that, only, well, they made a fine job of it with what can’t have been more than twenty minutes of preparation.

Here’s how it worked: Radfall cast a spell at me, figuring it would probably have no effect, but would alert me. Then she did a simple invisibility spell and wandered around a bit, because that way I’d have Loiosh and Rocza looking for her, and that got them out of the way. But then there was Lady Teldra, right? Out, in my hand, and if there’s ever a time when you don’t want to fuck with me, it’s when I’m holding her, and I’m alert and ready.

And, yeah, while Loiosh, Lady Teldra, and I were all concentrating on finding the sorceress-concentrating enough that Lady Teldra was oblivious to an invisibility spell a lot closer-we missed what was, like, six feet away, in front of me to the left. Because that’s how far the guy was when I felt the Morganti weapon, and he suddenly appeared.

I reacted, and-

How do you conceal the presence of a Morganti weapon? Here’s one I never thought of: You have another one, even more powerful, in the area. I don’t mean Lady Teldra-she’s part of me, and I don’t get the reaction I do from others. No, I mean that the one that suddenly appeared in front of me masked the one from behind.

It was a beautiful set-up.

I didn’t suspect someone was behind me until much, much too late. In fact, my first clue was a grunt practically in my ear.

I turned, and saw the weapon, recognized what it was as the guy holding it stumbled onto his knees, wincing. He dropped the weapon. He remained still, on all fours, and I understood why he hadn’t managed to finish me: there was a knife sticking out of his back.

I turned back to the other one, but he was quite sensibly backing away.

And about thirty feet away was someone I didn’t recognize. A guy in Jhereg colors, looking like he’d just thrown something. Like, say, the knife that was sticking out of the back of the guy who’d almost put a Morganti blade into my back.

What the-?

Loiosh and Rocza were flying toward me at full speed, of course, but then Loiosh said, “The sorceress is gone, Boss. Teleported.”

I didn’t answer him. My eyes were going back and forth between the guy who’d just thrown the knife, and the guy two feet away from me, on all fours, a Morganti dagger next to his hand, and a knife sticking out of his back.

That must have hurt.

I managed to keep my sympathy under control, while I studied the complete stranger who’d just saved my life. Then I took a step forward, putting my boot on the Morganti knife, just to be safe, and Lady Teldra made a second hole in the assassin’s back, and he was gone before he had time to scream. I told her to go ahead and feed, too, because I was just in that sort of mood.

I looked at my savior and said, “Let me guess. Kragar sent you?”

He shook his head.

“Kiera?”

He shook his head again.

“Well then, who-”

“That’d be me,” said the Demon, coming up behind him, flanked by a pair of bodyguards. “Looking out for my financial interests.”

“Good shot,” I told the guy.

“Thanks,” he said. “I practice.”

The Demon walked past him, and all three of them fell into a loose formation around him. They were all watching Lady Teldra. I wondered if they were going to ask me to sheath my weapon, or if they realized it would be wasted breath.

“I suppose,” said the Demon, “we should talk.”

“I guess so,” I said.

“Want to go inside?” he asked

I shook my head. “I’m more comfortable in the open.”

“All right.”

He glanced at his bodyguards, and nodded a little, and they all moved out of earshot, though not without significant looks at the weapon I was holding. The Demon glanced down at the body, looked at me, and gave me a little smile.

“Isn’t it nice that our interests line up again,” he said.

“If they do.”

I still wouldn’t re-sheathe Lady Teldra. He pretended not to notice. “How could they not?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I missed something. Maybe you just killed one of your own people to make it look good.”

“You think I’d do that?”

“No. I don’t think you would. But I don’t know for sure.”

“Nah,” he said. “You didn’t miss anything. You’ve set it up so it’s in my-our-interest to keep you alive. Poletra hates it, but he isn’t as stupid as he seems. He’ll face facts.”

“And the others? In particular, that Diyann guy?”

The Demon nodded. “You’ll be all right, but don’t make any mistakes. And don’t think you can now push this as far as you want. I know Diyann. If you go too far, he’ll get to the point where he’ll cut his own throat just to cut yours.”

“Yeah, that’s how I read him. As long as he isn’t there now.”

“He isn’t.”

“Good. And the Jhereg has nothing to worry about from me. My plans are full of having nothing to do with the Organization again, ever.”

“Good plan. We feel the same way about you.”

“Evidently not,” I said, and studied the dead guy.

He shook his head. “No,” he said.

“You’re sure it wasn’t Poletra? So mad or scared he just barked out the order without thinking it through?”

“I’m sure,” he said. “Trust me.”

You gotta love a guy with a sense of humor. I said, “How can you be so sure? You say it wasn’t you, but how can you know it wasn’t someone else?”

“In the first place, because no one would be that suicidal, after the Council gave the order. And in the second place, because I know who it was.”

“Oh? You going to tell me? Or is this information you plan to trade for something?”

He shrugged. “You’d get there anyway, sooner or later. It was the sorceresses.”

“The Left Hand? What did I do to them?”

“Worst thing you could have done: you gave them an opportunity.”

“I don’t-”

“Radfall.”

I shrugged. “So, she’s Left Hand. I know. But she was hired by one-”

“No, that isn’t it. She has, it seems, both an ear and a brain. She must have reported back fast.” He chuckled. “Too bad we weren’t using your new technique to listen in; would have saved some trouble.”

I shook my head. “I don’t get it. Reported what?”

“For a smart guy, Vlad, you’re pretty stupid sometimes.”

“If I’m stupid, how-”

“Don’t go there.”

“All right, then explain.”

“This process. It’s just their kind of thing, isn’t it.”

“I suppose.”

“And it’s huge. That’s why we got greedy with it, and tried to get both it and you.”

“Which I was counting on.”

“Yeah, which you were counting on. Aren’t you smart. And Terion was just killed, which sort of threw us off. Someone more suspicious than me might wonder if you had anything to do with that.”

“Of course I didn’t.”

“Of course you didn’t.”

I said, “So that all worked. But, you were saying, the Left Hand?”

He nodded. “But the only thing better for them than having that process, is having that process without competition.”

“Who-? Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s see if I have this right. They kill me, the Empire strips half the Council of everything. The Jhereg-the Right Hand-is crippled, and the Left Hand gets the technique and to keep all the profits.”

“Yep.”

“I should have seen that coming.”

“Yep.”

“For a smart guy, I can be pretty stupid.”

“Yeah,” he said.

I said, “But, won’t the Organization come down on them like, I don’t know, like something that comes down on things?”

“Maybe. Maybe not. If it’s clear they have all the power, then no. If it looks like we might able to make them pay, then yes.”

“And so the ugliness continues.”

“Yeah.”

“And I’m just as deep in the middle of it as I ever was.”

“Yeah.”

“Think I can make a deal with them?”

“Is it true that you killed Crithnak’s sister?”

“You know it’s true.”

“Morganti?”

“That part was sort of an accident.”

“I don’t think you can make a deal with them.”

“All right.”

I considered whether I should kill the Demon anyway, just on general principles. With me holding Lady Teldra, there was a pretty good chance his bodyguards couldn’t protect him. But then I’d have the Jhereg after me again, because you don’t put a shine on a Council member without permission from the rest of the Council, and far be it from me to break one of the unwritten Jhereg laws.

Again.

I finally sheathed Lady Teldra. To his credit, the Demon didn’t show any special reaction. He said, “I have to say, even so, you came up with a good plan, and you made it work.”

“Actually,” I said, “there’s one part of my plan that isn’t complete yet.”

“Oh?”

I dug into my pouch and pulled out a flask. I pulled the orange out, and the knife with the hollow blade. I punctured the orange, and, calling on all of my skill and finesse, dribbled some of the liqueur into the orange.

The Demon watched with a sort of mild, detached interest.

I put the knife away and held the orange for about ten seconds, then sucked some of the liqueur back out through the hole I’d just cut.

Gods of the Paths, it was good!

I offered the orange to the Demon. He raised his eyebrows, shrugged, took it, drank.

“That’s quite good,” he said.

I nodded. “It’s an old traditional drink from the East. Usually reserved for celebrating a triumph.”

He handed the orange back. I had some more. “I’m not sure how much you have to celebrate,” he said. “What with one thing and another.”

I shrugged and had another sip.

“I guess we’ll see,” I said.

“That we will. Thanks for the drink.”

“Thanks for the rescue.”

“Take care, Taltos. We’ll probably meet again.”

“Maybe,” I said.

He turned and walked away. I stood watching him until he and his bodyguards were well out of sight. Then I walked back to the edge of the cliff and stared out some more.

I had another drink. It was supposed to be a celebration of the end of a job, of my new freedom. Well, I guess it was a freedom of a different kind.

And, instead of the end of a job, it was the beginning of another.

I finished the orange and threw it over the cliff, onto Kieron’s Rocks, where some bird would no doubt enjoy what was left of it. Darkness was falling; the wind shifted.

I stood on the cliff staring out over the ocean-sea. Below me were Kieron’s Rocks. If I were into sacrificing everything for melodramatic gestures, I’d leap off the cliff. I’m perfectly willing to make a melodramatic gesture when it’s called for, but I won’t sacrifice everything for it.

“Boss?”

“Yeah.”

“So, it isn’t over. It’s just that now it’s the Left Hand instead?”

“Yeah.”

“So this is just going to go on and on?”

“No.”

“No?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m tired of it.”

“Because-”

“And because there were Jhereg outside Cawti’s house, and I’m tired of not being able to see my kid.”

I walked a little ways up the coast, staying on the cliff edge. Years and years, I’d spent running. I’d counted on this to either end it, or end me. So, okay. Why change plans now?

The wind was in my face, and my cloak would have been billowing nicely if I hadn’t tossed it away and it weren’t soaking wet. Take that as a metaphor, if you will. Also I wouldn’t have been as chilly, but that isn’t as important as pulling off the whole billowing-cloak-hair-in-the-wind-on-the-cliff thing. Adrilankha was far behind me. I could keep going, of course. I could just keep going this way, and run, and run.

I could have done that a week ago.

“Boss?”

I tapped Lady Teldra’s hilt with my finger, stopped, and faced the waves breaking beneath me.

“Yeah?”

“What are you going to do?”

I took off the amulet and weighed it in my hand. Then I took hold of the chain and swung it over my head.

“Boss!”

I let it go, and watched it arc over the cliff, over the beach, and fall into the ocean-sea.

“Come on,” I said. “Let’s get back to town, I really want my cloak.”