Hawk (Vlad) (31 page)

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Yes,” I managed. “That’s me.”

17

M
AKING
E
NEMIES
OR
M
AKING
A
S
TAND

“
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.