Issola (8 page)

"It seems to be the nature of the world. Just make your breaths shallow and you'll be fine. Soon you'll stop needing to think about it."

"Oh, good."

I took Aliera's hand and weighed the manacle in it. It was heavy, and seemed not too dissimilar to cast iron, maybe three quarters of an inch thick. The chain seemed to have been made as one piece of it, and I saw no way to break it, or separate the chain. I studied where the chain joined the wall again, and still saw nothing. I probably would have started to get frustrated at that point, but before I had the chance Loiosh said,
"Boss,
they're back,"
which gave me other things to think about.

"They're back" wasn't entirely accurate; only one of the Jenoine was back, but Teldra was with him, looking none the worse for wear, and holding something small and black in the palm of her hand. I permitted myself to hope it was a key to the manacles.

I held my tongue as she walked up to us; there's something about courtesy that's contagious. She said, "I have negotiated with the Jenoine."

I studied her face at that moment, I suppose feeling something momentous about to occur, and I couldn't get anything from her expression.

"They will release you, Morrolan and Aliera, if Vlad agrees to perform a task for them."

"I can hardly wait," I muttered, but either no one heard me or they all ignored me.

"They want Vlad to perform a killing, a murder."

"Did you explain that I'm no longer in that line of work:"'

"I made no agreement of any kind," she said. "I merely spoke to them, and they stated the conditions."

"And otherwise we'll be killed, I assume," said Aliera, as if she were being threatened with not being allowed to dinner.

"That wasn't specified."

"That's why we were taken," said Aliera, giving me a look. "In order to coerce Vlad into doing what they want."

"You'd think," said Morrolan, "that if that was true, they'd have
taken Cawti, or better yet—" He broke off abruptly and scowled.

"They're separated," said Aliera.

"So?" said Morrolan. "Who knows how the Jenoine think, and
what they know? They may not know much more of our customs, not to mention emotions, than we know of theirs."

"They know enough to have us here, bait for Vlad. You'll notice he's here."

"Makes me wonder what they would have done if you hadn't been
along, Lady Teldra."

"Some of them speak our language," she said.

I cleared my throat. "I notice none of you are asking the obvious question."

"You mean," said Morrolan, "who is it she wants killed? It’s obviously either Sethra, or a god, and you certainly aren't going to do it, so what difference does it make?"

"I should think a god," said Aliera judiciously. "Probably Verra." Teldra bowed to her.

"Verra?" I said. "They want me to kill Verra?"

"Yes," said Teldra.

"Well, I have been annoyed with her now and then. I mean, can't say I haven't thought about it."

"It isn't a joking matter, Vlad," said Morrolan.

"I
think it is, Boss."

"That's two of us, if it comes to a vote."

"Did they have any suggestions as to how I was to accomplish this task?" She held out the object in her palm. It was a small, black cube, perhaps an inch on a side. It didn't seem to reflect any light. "I am told," she said, "that this will bring you to the presence of the Goddess." With her other hand, she took from her belt a sheathed knife I hadn't noticed before. "This is a very powerful Morganti dagger; it will be sufficient to, as they put it, prevent the Goddess from manifesting on our world."

"That means kill her," said Morrolan.

"Not exactly," said Aliera.

"Close enough.”

I made some sort of grunting sound; I'm not sure what it meant, because I'm not sure what I was thinking. Teldra set the two objects down at my feet, then stepped back. There was something of ritual about how she did it; as if she were saying, "Here, now my work is done, and I say nothing about your work, what it is, or if you ought to do it." I stared at the black cube and at the Morganti dagger I could feel its emanations even from its sheath. I said, "Teldra, do you trust them?"

"Vlad!" said Aliera. "You aren't considering doing it!"

"Yes," said Teldra. "I think they were telling the truth."

I grunted again.

"Look on the bright side, Boss:
you've done a king, now you'll be able to say you've -
"

"That's not
the bright side. The bright side is the pleasure of
rescuing Morrolan and Aliera. They'll never live it down."
Morrolan was staring at me. "Vlad, you can't be thinking, about it. Think! Verra, the Demon Goddess. Your ancestors have worshiped her—"

"Leave it alone, Morrolan."

"Leave it alone? She is my goddess, too. How can I let you destroy her to save me?" I laughed. "How can you stop me?"

"Vlad—"

"Oh, be still, dammit. I don't want to hear anything from anyone for a while, okay? Except you, Teldra, I want you to answer a question or two: Did they say anything about how long I had to make up my mind?"

"It wasn't mentioned," she said.

"Did they say anything about feeding us?"

"No."

Aliera opened her mouth to make another passionate and irritating plea, so I turned and walked away to the far side of the room. What I needed was time to think; usually needing time to think only happens when you haven't got any, but this time I at least had the chance to work a few things through in my head: Aliera and Morrolan wouldn't subject themselves to the indignity of yelling across the room, Teldra was too polite to say anything, and, for a miracle, even Loiosh gave me some peace.

So I ran a lot of stuff around my brain, for whatever that would do. The fact is, I don't think all that well when I'm just standing and thinking; I need to be talking, or doing something active, then the thoughts flow. But I did my best, and eventually sorted the matter out into several categories of things that I didn't understand. This was progress. Categories, if you'll excuse a brief digression, are a useful way to get a handle on things you don't understand, as long as you don't get too attached to them and forget that things like to pop out of one category and into another, and that sometimes the whole category turns itself inside out and becomes something different. It's useful, for example, to categorize your target as a sorcerer, if he is one; but if you get too attached to your category it'll leave you embarrassed when he suddenly pulls a knife on you.

Just thought I'd share my reflections on categories.

In this case, I broke the unknowns down into: the abilities of the Jenoine, the plans of the Jenoine, and the nature of this world we were in.

I decided to start with the latter. I walked back.

"You have no link to the Orb, correct?"

Morrolan and Aliera nodded.

"Your Great Weapons seem to be behaving normally?"

They nodded again.

"What about time?"

"Excuse me?" said Aliera.

"I know time works differently in different places. I've been to the Paths of the Dead. Exactly how differently does it work here?"

"As far as I know," said Morrolan, "an hour here is an hour at home." I shook my head. "No, I know that isn't true. How long have you been here?"

"I don't know," said Aliera. "Several hours."

"Several days," I told her. "Five, to be exact."

They look properly startled. Before they could respond, I said, "What about Verra's Halls? How does time work there?"

"What difference does that make?" asked Aliera.

"I'm just curious."

Morrolan looked suspicious, and like he didn't want to answer. I glanced at Teldra, who said, "I don't know. I assume time flows the same there as it does at home, but I don't actually know."

"Okay," I said.

The reason that assassins make so much money is that, first of all, there aren't many who have what it takes to dispassionately murder someone; and, of those, there aren't many who can get away with it. I used to be one of them. Whatever there is in me that made me able to shove the knife, I still had. What made me able to get away with it so many times - sixty-three to be exact - was that I understood the key ingredient: knowledge. You have to know things. You have to know everything there is to know about your target, about the environment, about your weapons, about your own abilities. Then you can
make a plan. A plan built on ignorance can be worse than charging in with no plan at all; if you have no plan, you might get lucky.

I gestured toward the cube on the floor. "How do you use that thing?"

"All you need to do is hold it," said Teldra.

"Vlad—" said Aliera.

"Oh, stuff it," I said. "Morrolan, if I get you two out of those things, will you be able to get us out of here? Back home?"

He hesitated, then looked disgusted and shook his head. “Maybe," he said, "but probably not." Aliera said, "Can you get us out, Vlad?"

"I'm still thinking about that," I said. "But even if I can I don't know how much good it will do."

"I would rather," she said, "be free to act, no matter what happens after."

"I understand that," I told her.

Either way was a gamble - picking up the cube, or attempting to free Morrolan and Aliera. I don't like gambling, especially when I don't know the odds; or at least the stakes. When possible, I'd rather be running the game than playing it. But now the Jenoine were running it, and I didn't even know the rules. I didn't know how to free them, and I didn't know if I could kill Verra. Freeing them might accomplish nothing; killing my Demon Goddess was not high on my list of ways to spend an afternoon.

I reached down and picked up the Morganti dagger; stuffed it into my belt. It wasn't easy to do - I'd never liked those things, and I could tell instantly that this was a particularly nasty one. Well, I suppose it would have to be, if they expected me to kill the Goddess with it.

Morrolan snapped, "What are you doing, Vlad?"

"Can always use a good Morganti dagger, right?"

"Boss,
you're not going to — "

"I've got to do something. I'm bored."

"Oh. You're bored. Well, that's a good reason—"

"Drop it."

So I didn't have a plan. I did, as I stood there, start to get seeds of what might, sometime, become a vague step generally in the direction of an intention. I may be stating that too strongly. I took a good look around the room, noting the tall, thin metal shelves; the flat grey look of the walls; the height of the ceiling. I tried to fix it in my mind. I could not imagine what circumstances might lead me to
try teleporting here, but that is the sort of thinking that goes with paying attention to details, in case you're curious about how my mind works.

My chest hurt. I tried to keep my breathing shallow, and to forget about how heavy I felt. It would be impossible to exert myself without taking deep breaths. I felt Aliera and Morrolan watching me. One step, and I was committed, and I still just didn't have enough information. But the only other option was standing around doing nothing, and that would only be effectie for so long.

No, if I was going to do something, I had to have information, and there was no one here who could give it to me, which left only one option.

I reached into my pouch and pulled out two pieces of gammon. I handed one to Aliera and one to Morrolan. "If you're going to be helpless and miserable," I said, "at least you can eat a little." They both accepted it, and they both looked like they were trying to decide if they should thank me, but neither said anything. I flexed my fingers.

All right.

"Lady Teldra," I said, "would you come here, please? Take my hand, if you would." She did so, asking no questions but looking curious. Her hand was dry and cool. I reached down with my other hand, not letting her go, and picked up the small black cube.

Aliera said, "Vlad, what are you doing?"

The cube was very heavy for its size, but didn't seem to do anything except make the walls of the room turn a dull, ugly white. Or, at any rate, that was my first reaction; it took a moment to realize that Teldra, Loiosh, and I now stood in the Halls of Verra, the Demon Goddess.

5

Everything was too big and too white. The ceiling too high, the walls
too far apart, the pillars spaced along the walls too big around, and everything the same uniform, ugly, chalky, pasty color. It was huge. It was only a hallway. The next thing I noticed was that it was easier to breathe, I didn't feel as heavy and sluggish as I had a second ago. It was only then that I realized that the little black cube had, after doing its job, neatly vanished.

"I got to get me one of those," I remarked. My voice sounded funny; it took me a second to realize it was because there was no echo - it was as if the corridor was absorbing the sound.

"I'll
pass one along next time we get a shipment," said Teldra.
Her voice sounded odd, too. I had to look at her before I knew she was kidding. It was a very un-Teldra-like remark; I guess she was rattled too. She said, "Where are we?"

"Where we're supposed to be. Or where we're not supposed to be, depending on how you look at it. But this is the home of Verra. I've been here before. Straight up ahead there, through those
doors, is where I've seen her."

"You've been in her presence, then?"

"Yes, a couple of times. Once here, once elsewhere. Or maybe
more often than that, if you use 'presence' loosely enough."

"We are surrounded by the color of illness; not very encouraging."

"I think it means something else to her."

"I suspected as much. But what?"

"I don't know, exactly. Is it important?"

"It is something I ought to have known."

"As Morrolan's High Priestess, you mean?"

She nodded. "Something like that can be important. And just in general, the more I know of the gods, the better."

"You must already know a great deal; maybe there are things you ought to tell me about Verra, before we go through those doors."