Iorich (31 page)

Kiera was, as promised, waiting in the courtyard. “Well?” she said.

“Well enough,” I said. “Maybe. Have to see.”

She frowned. “What did you do?”

“Started a delayed-action explosive spell.”

“Uh, let’s go up to your room.”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

“What?”

“Forget it.”

I made my slow painful way to the room. I stretched out on the bed, Kiera took the chair.

“Interesting noise,” she said.

“Hmmm?”

“As you lay down. Somewhere between a groan and a sigh. I don’t think I’ve heard anyone do that before. Are you sure you don’t want to be fixed up?”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Unless you have to move fast.”

“When have I ever needed to move fast?”

She didn’t even bother to give me a look for that one. “What did you do?”

“I hired her.”

“To do what?”

“I need to know what’s going on in a certain little cottage in South Adrilankha.”

“And that was the only way to find out?”

“The best way, under the circumstances.”

“Why?”

“I’m trying to do two things at once.”

She nodded. “I once tried to steal two things at once. Want to hear what happened?”

“Only if it worked.”

“I won’t talk about it, then.”

“There are two things going on, Kiera. They’re probably related, but I can’t know that.”

“Aliera’s prosecution, and the effort to set you up.”

“Right.”

“And the cottage in South Adrilankha?”

“It’s a long shot, as far Aliera’s prosecution, but it’s all I can come up with. My thinking is this: If the Jhereg wants to blame the killing on one of these people, they’ll—”

“Wait. What?”

“The Jhereg is planning to kill the Imperial investigator, a certain Desaniek, and blame it on a group of Eastern and Teckla rebels.”

“How did you put that together?”

“When I asked Cawti if she were still giving reading lessons, she said, ‘until lately,’ which got me to thinking—never mind. It’s a long story. The point is, if they want to kill the investigator, and blame it on this group of rebels, they’ll need to know what the group is up to. If I know what they’re up to, maybe I’ll be able to figure out where they’ll move.”

She looked doubtful. “That doesn’t seem likely.”

“I agree, but it’s all I’ve got.”

“What about the other reason? How does this help you get out of a setup?”

“It might not, but if she takes the trouble to find out who I am, and I did everything but beg her to, it’s going to stir up the Jhereg, and maybe throw them off their game.”

“That is really thin.”

“Not as thin as you think. Something unexpected happens when you’re after someone, you slow down and make sure you
know what’s going on. All I need is for them to slow down long enough to let me finish this business and get back out of town.”

“That is very thin.”

“Like the other, it’s what I have. Do you have any better ideas?”

“This is bigger than you seem to realize, Vlad.”

“What makes you think that?”

“Eh? It’s the Left Hand of the Jhereg, the Jhereg, and the Orca manipulating Imperial politics. How much bigger—?”

“No, what makes you think I don’t realize how big it is?”

“You aren’t acting as if you do.”

“Kiera, after you’ve been in battle with gods, you get to the point where the affairs of mere mortals—”

“Can you be serious for two words?”

“Not without effort,” I said.

“Apply yourself.”

I shrugged. “What do you want from me? Okay, it’s serious. It’s big. I get that. But I came back here to help Aliera. If you can show me a better way to do that, I’m listening.”

“I’ll never understand this passion you have for making yourself a target.”

“It isn’t a passion, it’s more of an avocation.” She started to say something, but I cut her off. “I didn’t create the situation, and no one was doing a damned thing about it, either because they didn’t want to offend the Empress, or because they didn’t want to offend Aliera. You couldn’t fit the hair of a norska’s tail on how much I care about offending either one. There’s a problem, I’m fixing it.”

“You’re stubborn, Vlad.”

“Is that a compliment?”

“Sometimes. Usually. Right now, I’m not sure. How can I help?”

“You probably can’t, but I’ll let you know if something comes up.”

She sighed, started to say something else, then just shrugged and left me with her Kiera smile and soft kiss on the cheek. I lay on my back and tried not to move too much, and eventually got some rest.

Your Highness: I urgently request an immediate review of the entire Imperial prison system. With the suicide of Bryn our investigation—an investigation, Your Highness, instigated by the express wishes of Her Majesty—has been seriously compromised. Permit me to urge Your Highness in the strongest possible terms to form a committee of our own House and some of the more skilled Vallista to see what can be done to make sure this doesn’t happen again; it is hardly an overstatement to say that the honor of the House itself is at stake. Any further event of this type and I will not answer for the committee being able to carry out its duties.

I Remain, Your Highness,
Your Loyal and Respectful
Justicer Desaniek

I woke up feeling still better. If this trend continued, I’d be back in shape to fight in only a month or so.

“Boss!”

That was when I realized what woke me up.
“What is it?”

“Uh, this is weird. I’m hearing things.”

“Yeah, that’s what was supposed to happen.”

“But, it’s
weird.”

“It’s just for a day or two. Anything interesting?”

“Depends how interested you are in snoring.”

“Mostly interested in my own, but it’s too late for that, now.”

“Cry up a storm, Boss.”

I got up and slowly and painfully took care of morning things. The plan for the day was, actually, to do nothing except to stay as safe as I could: there was nothing to do until and unless I got some information from Loiosh, or until someone made a move at me.

I had them bring me some food. There was klava—good klava—and some hen’s eggs partly boiled with salt, and bread with a luxurious amount of butter. They charged too much, but here and there were compensations.

Loiosh reported conversations that were only remarkable in their triviality—the best markets, who had become pregnant, whose uncle had taken sick. Sometimes he identified the voices as male, sometimes female, sometimes mixed. At one point, two women who spoke with an accent that Loiosh remembered as being from some Eastern kingdom got into a conversation that made me blush when Loiosh repeated it. And I don’t blush easy.

By the evening, I was starting to wonder if the whole thing were a put-up job—if someone knew I was listening and was staging the conversations for my benefit. But then, I reminded myself that most of these people worked eighteen hours a day or so, many of them at the slaughter houses, so I wouldn’t expect to hear anything of substance until the evening.

And, indeed, in the evening I started hearing things that
were more interesting: Loiosh reported a male voice saying, “They should be arriving within the half hour, we should set the chairs up.”

I sent down for another meal to prepare myself; this one a whole fowl done in a sweet wine sauce. I don’t actually care much for sweet sauces, but it wasn’t bad.

“Pounding sounds, Boss. Doors. People coming in. Voices.”

“What are the voices saying, Loiosh?”

“No idea. They’re all talking at once. Greetings, I think.”

“Any Eastern accents?”

“One or two, maybe. It’s hard to say.”

“All right.”

About half an hour later he said,
“They’re quieting down. Someone’s talking. Dragaeran, or at least no accent I can hear.”

“What’s he saying?”

“She. Blah blah blah the Empire blah blah blah Tirma blah blah blah organize blah blah—”

“Loiosh.”

“Boss, when she actually says anything, I’ll tell you, okay? This having voices in my head is really weird.”

“You should be used to it. I am.”

“It’s not the same.”

“Okay.”

About half an hour later, he said,
“They’re going to be having some sort of meeting tomorrow.”

“How thrilling.”

“With an Imperial Representative.”

“Oh. If it turns out to be Desaniek, this will suddenly be too easy.”

“No idea who it is.”

“Guess I’d better find out.”

“They’re still talking, Boss. Something about meeting before the meeting with the Representative, to, I don’t know, I couldn’t hear. Something about unity.”

“Where’s the meeting?”

“Which?”

“Both.”

“The one with the Representative will be at Speaker’s Hall at the fifth hour of the afternoon. The earlier one will be noon, at the cottage.”

“A meeting before the meeting. Okay. Got it. I may have a bit of an idea, but I first need to make sure that it is Desaniek going to that meeting.”

“What if it isn’t?”

“Then I’ll—”

I didn’t have to answer the question, because a clap outside the door interrupted me.

“Who?”

“No one I know, Boss. Just one, though.”

I stirred myself. I had forgotten about the damned rib and sat up directly, instead of turning on my side first. I resolved not to do that again. I hoped I wasn’t going to have to defend myself, because I just wasn’t in any shape to. Nevertheless, I let a knife fall into my right hand, held it behind the door, and opened the door carefully.

My, my, my.

I didn’t recognize her, but I knew what she was. She had a face like a knife’s edge, hair swept back and tied, and wore black and gray and rings on every finger including both thumbs.

I stepped back. “Well,” I said. “This is unexpected. Please come in.”

“Vladimir Taltos?”

“Something like that,” I said. “And you are?”

“A messenger.” She made no move to come in; the hallway behind her was empty.

“I can guess from whom.”

“You have a deal with us,” she said. “We have a project working you know something about. If you interfere with the project, the deal is off.”

Then she turned and walked down the hall.

I shut the door and put the knife away.

“Well,”
I said after a moment.
“I guess I’ve been warned.”

“I guess so. What are you going to do?”

“Just what I was planning to do.”

“Now?”

“Might as well.”

Loiosh and Rocza flew out of the door ahead of me, and announced that things looked good. I made my way to the Palace. I still walked as if nothing hurt, and I still knew it wouldn’t make any difference. As we walked, Loiosh said,
“Can I stop listening now?”

“Soon. Not yet.”

“It’s just more of the same, Boss.”

“Sorry. We’ll be done with this soon.”

Who would know? Well, the Empress, of course, and I’d try again to see her if I had to, but one doesn’t simply barge in on the Empress to get a simple question answered if one has any choice, so I took myself to the Dragon Wing to see if the temporary acting Warlord and Dragon Heir to the throne happened to have a spare moment. Start small, that’s what I always say.