Hawk (Vlad) (11 page)

“No, should work just as well.”

“Good.”

“What else?”

He frowned. “Let me consider.”

“Take your time,” I said. “This is the first safe place I’ve been in in some time.”

He chuckled. Then he said, “All right. I’ll find a place. And if it works, you’ll be clear—no, I’ll go further. It’ll be strictly hands-off of you, family, and friends, as long as you don’t do anything else unseemly.”

“More than reasonable,” I said, because it was.

He nodded. “I can’t do more than that; you’re on your own getting there.”

“Yeah, so you said.”

He tilted his head and studied me. “I like you, Taltos. If I could give you a few days of safety, I would. But, this may shock you, there are some who are not only greedy, but don’t like you.”

“And yet, I’m such a pleasant fellow.”

“I have to do a balancing act. If this comes through, it won’t be a problem to have your name taken off the shine-on-sight list. But I’ll need at least two other Council members to witness the demonstration. If I know them, they’ll want to be there in person. I would.”

“Sure.”

“And that means they’ll need to feel safe.”

“I understand that.”

“Would you consent to a hostage?”

There were only two possible hostages. “No,” I said.

“I didn’t think so.” He considered some more. “All right. First of all, your, ah, winged friends can wait in the street, or above the street. In any case, outside of the room until we’re finished.”

“Boss! Don’t you—”

“Done,” I said.

He gestured toward Lady Teldra at my side. “And you will leave that outside.”

“No,” I said.

“Deal-breaker,” he said.

“You know enough about weapons like this to know that just isn’t going to happen.”

“I trust you,” he said. “Probably exactly as much as you trust me. And that means not enough to put you in a room full of people you hate and let you keep a Great Weapon.”

“So, you don’t mind sending us out of the room, but—”

“I don’t mind putting you exactly where I need you to be, no. Now shut up.”

“What about this,” I said. “You’re going to need sorcerers in the room anyway.”

He nodded, listening.

“Think one of them could find a bonding spell strong enough to keep her in her sheath? We’d just need an hour or so.”

He frowned. “A spell strong enough to keep it sheathed if, um, if it doesn’t want to stay that way? If the sorcerer is good enough, and takes enough time, yes, it should be manageable.”

“Good,” I said. “Ask your people. You must have some who know what they’re dealing with and can give you a straight answer.”

“And you’d go along with that?”

“Yes.”

He nodded. “I think we can manage that.”

“Good, then. Is there anything else you want?”

He considered, then shook his head.

“You’ll get back to me when you’ve settled on the place?”

“I will. Presumably a message delivered to your friend Kragar will find you.”

I nodded.

“And you know how to reach me when we’re ready. I’ll need thirty hours’ notice, no more.”

“Good, then.” I stood up.

He smiled. “Vlad, it will be good to have you back in the Organization.”

“I can hardly wait myself,” I said. “Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

“By all means,” he said.

I stood, bowed, and headed out the door.

6

M
AKING
D
EALS
OR
M
AKING
S
MALL
T
ALK

My back itched all the way to the street, but Loiosh and Rocza were keeping watch. As I passed through the gate, I caught the eye of the short guy who’d been there before. I thought about asking how his friend was, but there was no way to do so without making it seem like I was sneering, so I just kept walking.

“Boss?”

“Yeah?”

“Can you really do that? What you told the Demon?”

“Daymar says I can.”

“But can you?”

“I guess we’ll see, won’t we?”

“Boss—”

“Yeah, I think so. With enough help and enough gear.”

“And you think the Demon will keep to his deal?”

“What do you think?”

“What’s next?”

“A decent night’s sleep while I figure that out.”

“And a meal?”

“Yeah. Almost dying used to scare me; now it just makes me hungry. I wonder what that means.”

“It means we should find something to eat.”

“Yeah.”

I hadn’t left anything in the flophouse in South Adrilankha, so I took us back toward Little Deathgate where there was a good collection of inns, as well as plenty of street food. I like street food. On this occasion I got flatbread with lamb, onions, carrots, peppers, and whole garlic cloves, and I picked up a bottle of cheap wine to wash it down. I rented a room in an almost invisible hostelry off a street with no name. We went up to the room. None of us, I suppose, were as alert as we should have been, between having survived the attack and eating, but nothing happened. Sometimes you catch a break when you don’t deserve it.

I got undressed and lay down on top of the blanket with my cloak over me—not trusting the bed itself to be free of wildlife—and closed my eyes. And that’s when I started shaking and sweating. The attack had happened hours ago, and I’d gotten through the meeting with the Demon, and a walk through a scary part of town, and
now
it was hitting me?
Now
I couldn’t shut my eyes without feeling that Morganti blade, and seeing images of steel flashing toward me? That made no sense.

It took me a long time to fall asleep.

I woke up fully alert and a bit scared, my hand reaching for a weapon.

“It’s all right, Boss. Nothing going on.”

I nodded and got up, got clean, and got dressed.

Just across the street was a coffee vendor. I bought his cheapest mug and filled it, figuring it would keep me going until I found klava. Then it was a long walk, Loiosh and Rocza flying overhead, all the way back to Malak Circle, where there was a shop I’d patronized for years.

I stopped in the doorway of a leathergoods store across the street, and watched it. This was my old area, and this store was a place I had been known to patronize. In other words, this wasn’t safe at all. Loiosh didn’t say anything, but I could feel his nervousness, a reflection of my own. After ten minutes, I said,
“Okay, I think we’re good.”

“Okay, Boss.”

I didn’t recognize the man behind the counter. “Who are you?” I said by way of introduction.

He was young and a Jhegaala and he didn’t know quite how to respond to an Easterner who carried a sword and wasn’t obsequious. While he was working it out, I snapped, “Well?”

“Nyier,” he said. “I’m helping out.”

“All right, Nyier. Then you can help me out.”

I spent a lot of money there, but I came away with two fighting knives, three more throwing knives, six shuriken, two more daggers, and four darts that would be useless if I couldn’t get what I needed to mix up a batch of nerve toxin. It wasn’t as much as I used to carry, but it was considerably more than I’d had on me for the last few years.

I left the place carefully and took myself all the way back to Little Deathgate and the inn I’d stayed at. It was still early, so I shouldn’t have to pay anything for the room.

It took three full hours to arrange my new toys in places where I could get at them easily but they wouldn’t clank as I walked. Apparently, that was a skill that required constant practice. Who knew?

When I was finally done, I had a brief interaction with the host, who wanted extra money for the room. He fumed and ranted. I gave him the cold look. The cold look won the argument. Lucky for him: if it hadn’t, I’d have glared. Then I set off once more for Malak Circle, aware of how stupid it was for me to be there. But a lot of what I needed to do was nearby, so it seemed a reasonable place to start what I figured was liable to be a fruitless search.

“I need a base of operations, Loiosh. Somewhere I can have a reasonable chance the Jhereg won’t find me, and that’s close enough to the action that I don’t waste all of my time going from place to place.”

“So you’ve been saying, Boss.”

“Yeah.”

“For months.”

“Yeah. But now it’s a bit more urgent.”

“Good. Then we should find a place with no problem, right?”

“You aren’t helping.”

I hung around the fountain, trying to duck into corners, while I thought about it. This really was just about the worst place for me, so close to my old office—

“Boss, no!”

“Loiosh, yes. They’ll never look for me there.”

“No, because they won’t have to.”

“It’ll work, Loiosh. Have I ever been wrong about this kind of thing?”

“You mean this week?”

“And if they do figure it out—”

“When.”

“It’ll still be damned bloody hard for them to get me there. It’s perfect.”

“Except that you’ll have to leave, and you don’t dare teleport.”

“There’s the tunnel, remember?”

“And you’re betting everything that no one knows about it?”

“Not everything. Just most things.”

“Boss, this is just stupid.”

If he was going to be unreasonable, there was no point in continuing the conversation. I took us down the street, skirting the edge of Copper Lane until the old place was just opposite. A deep breath, a careful look around, and then across the street to a little storefront that still sold the “Summer Wind” and “Sweetwater” strains of dreamgrass for the best price in this part of the city.

It was a small place, and the smell would have been pleasant if it weren’t quite so intense; but I was only in for the space of a breath before going through the curtained doorway and into the back room with its tables and chairs and cards and sweat and an enforcer giving me a cold stare that looked like it could turn into a glare at any second. I couldn’t let that happen, I might not be able to stand it. So with everyone staring at me, I walked up to him and said, very softly, “Tell Kragar that Vlad is here.” I smiled at him. “If you don’t mind.” My hands were well clear of my body.

He hesitated, then looked over at his partner, who hadn’t heard me. There was a moment when, I assume, they were speaking psychically, then they both shrugged and the one I’d spoken to turned to me and said, “Wait here.”

I nodded and set about doing so. It wasn’t that hard, except for the constant itch between my shoulder blades.

I didn’t have to wait long. Lord Tough-guy came down and, stepping aside, motioned me toward the stairs up to what had once been my office. I had to walk right past him, giving him a shot at my back from eight inches. Yes, Loiosh and Rocza were on full alert; and yes, this operation was controlled by someone I trusted completely.

But making that walk still wasn’t easy.

My courage was rewarded at the top of the stairs by a grin wrapped around the face of an old friend.

“Vlad!”

“Kragar. I can’t believe I can see you.”

“Come in! Klava?”

“Klava,” I said. “May you dwell forever in Barlen’s heaven of musical jewels.”

“Sounds boring.”

He led me past a couple of his enforcers and into his office, calling, “Klava!” as he walked by. I wondered—not for the first time—if he had trouble with no one noticing the orders he gave them. He sat behind my—his—desk; I sat facing it, but I turned the chair so I could stretch my legs out.

“So, how’s business, Kragar?”

“Good. Not so much income as when you ran things, but less trouble.”

“No border disputes?”

He smirked. “No one seems to notice my operations.”

“Nice.”

“And you? Anything new?”

“I think I might have a way to get this matter handled.”

“By ‘this matter’ do you mean—?”

“Yeah.”

He whistled. “How can I help?”

“For starters, let me stay here.”

“Here? In the office?”

“I’ll curl up in a corner.”

The klava arrived. I drank some, and the day became better.

“Seriously, Vlad?”

“Seriously. I need somewhere to operate from. Somewhere I know the Jhereg isn’t going to be able to get me.”

“Here? This is your idea of a place the Jhereg can’t get you?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Vlad, did you lose your mind on the road, or was it since you came back?”

“Kragar, who hangs out up here in your office?”

“Jhereg, Vlad. You know, people who want to kill you?”

“Yeah, have a lot of them done ‘work’?”

“The people in my office? No, but—”

“And do they do what you say?”

“I…”

“Yes?”

“If word gets out—”

“As Loiosh says,
when
word gets out. It will. And then they’ll have the problem of setting up a shot at me in the worst possible place.”

“But every time you leave—”

“Kragar, remember? I know about the other exit.”

He frowned, looking pained. “How long?”

“A few days at the most.”

He shook his head. “All right. I’ll have my old office cleared out. Been using it for storage. However crazy I am for letting you do it, you’re crazier for wanting to.”

“Thanks,” I said.

“You know, I can’t believe you haven’t gotten me killed yet. Even once.”

“Yeah, we’ll see if we can do something about that before it’s too late.”

“Hey, thanks, Vlad.”

“What are friends for?”

“How does the thing work?”

“What thing?”

“Your idea for getting out from under.”

“Oh. It’s complicated. The short version is I’ve come up with a business opportunity so lucrative, the Demon says he’ll clear me if I can prove it’ll work.”