Yendi (8 page)

Zerika was a young three or four hundred, which is like mid-twenties to a human. Her hair was golden--and if I'd meant "blond" I would have said "blond." Her eyes were the same color, rather like a lyorn's, and deeply set. Her forehead was high, her brows light and almost invisible against very pale skin. (Notwithstanding the rumors, however, she was
not
undead.)

The House of the Phoenix is always the smallest, because they won't consider you a Phoenix unless an actual phoenix is seen to pass overhead at the time of your birth. The Interregnum had eliminated every Phoenix except Zerika's mother--who died in childbirth.

Zerika was born during the Interregnum. The last Emperor had been a decadent Phoenix, and since this was the seventeenth Cycle, the next Emperor had to be a Phoenix too, since a reborn Phoenix is supposed to follow a decadent Phoenix every seventeen Cycles. So far as I can tell, by the way, a reborn Phoenix is an Emperor of the House of the Phoenix who doesn't become decadent by the end of his reign. Anyway, since Zerika was the only Phoenix living at the time, this meant it had to be Zerika. (All of this business about "what makes a Phoenix" is very strange when combined with aspects of the relationships among Houses--such as genetics. I mean, it seems absurd to have the opinion that most Dragaerans seem to have about cross-breeds, when there is, at the moment, no other way to produce a Phoenix heir except through cross-breeding. I may go into this at some point.) In any case, at the tender age of one hundred or thereabouts she came to Deathsgate Falls and passed, living, through the Paths of the Dead and so came to the Halls of Judgment. There she took the Orb from the shade of the last Emperor and returned to declare the Interregnum at an end. This was about the time my

great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather was being born. That business about descending Deathsgate Falls, by the way, is quite impressive. I know, because I've done it myself.

But the point is that this background gave Zerika a certain understanding of the human condition--or at least the Dragaeran condition. She was wise and she was intelligent. She knew that there was nothing to be gained by interfering in a duel between Jhereg. On the other hand, I guess what Laris and I had been doing to each other was too much to ignore.

We woke up the morning after the meeting with Terion to find the streets patrolled by guards in Phoenix livery. Notices were posted explaining that no one was allowed in the streets after nightfall, that no groups of more than four could assemble, that all use of sorcery would be carefully observed and regulated, that all taverns and inns were shut down until further notice. There was also the unspoken statement that no illegal activity of any kind would be tolerated.

It was enough to make me want to move to a better neighborhood.

"Where do we stand, Kragar?"

"We can keep up like this--supporting everything and not earning--for about seven weeks."

"Do you think this will last seven weeks?"

"I don't know. I hope not."

"Yeah. We can't reduce our forces unless Laris does, and we don't have any way of knowing if Laris will. That's the worst part of it--this would be the perfect time to start infiltrating his organization, but we can't because he doesn't have anything running, either."

Kragar shrugged. "We'll just have to sit tight."

"Hmmmm. Maybe. Tell you what: why don't we find a few places he's connected to that are legitimate--you know, like restaurants--and make friends with some of the management types."

"Make friends?"

"Sure. Give them presents."

"Presents?"

"Gold."

"Just give it to them?"

"Yeah. Not ask for anything. Have people hand them money, and say it comes from me."

He looked more puzzled than ever. "What will that do?"

"Well, it works with court advisors, doesn't it? I mean, isn't that the kind of thing the connections do? Just maintain good relationships so that if they need something, people will be well-disposed toward them? Why not try it here? It can't do any harm."

"It costs."

"Screw that. It might work. If they like us, that makes it more likely they'll tell us something. And maybe they can tell us something useful. If not right away, then someday."

"It's worth a try," he admitted.

"Start out with five hundred, and spread it around a bit."

"You're the boss."

"Next: we really should get some idea of when we can open something up. Do you have any guesses at all? Days? Weeks? Months? Years?"

"At least days, maybe weeks. Remember--those guards don't like this any more than we do. They'll be fighting it from their end, and all the merchants who aren't involved are going to be fighting it from
their
end. Also, it goes without saying that all the organization contacts in the Palace will be working on it. I don't think it can last more than a month."

"Will it stop all at once, or gradually disappear?"

"Could be either way, Vlad."

"Hmmph. Well, could we open, say, one game, in a week?"

"They might let us get away with it. But once you open up a game, what happens the first time a customer runs short of cash? We need to have someone to lend him money. And then maybe he gets behind on his payments, so he starts stealing. We need a cleaner. Or--"

"We don't have a cleaner in any case."

"I'm working on that."

"Oh. All right. But yes, I see your point. It's all tied in."

"And there's another thing: whoever opens up is going to be pretty nervous. That means that you should really make personal visits--and that's dangerous."

"Yeah."

"One thing we could do is find a new office. I can still smell the smoke in here."

"We could, but... do you know where Laris's office is?"

"I know, but he doesn't go there anymore. We don't know where he is."

"But we know where his office is. Fine. That's where my next office will be." He looked startled, then shook his head. "Nothing like confidence," he said. Narvane was in touch with me pretty constantly that week, and was slowly getting a feel for the work. After what had happened to Temek, he was being careful, but we were accumulating a list of places and a few names.

I tried doing a small witchcraft spell on Laris, just to see if there was any point in attacking him that way, but I got nothing. That meant that he was protected against witchcraft--and indicated that he really did know me, since most Dragaerans don't think of the art as anything to bother with.

I had enforcers following those people we knew, trying to get their movements down so we could use this information later. We approached a couple of them with large sums, hoping to find out where Laris was hiding, but we didn't get any takers. The project to make friends with Laris's people went better, although just as slowly. We got nothing useful, but there were indications that we might in the future. I had some people speak to the Phoenix Guards. We learned from them that they weren't happy about the duty, didn't expect it to last long, and that they were as impatient to start earning their gambling money again as we were to start needing to pay them. I considered the matter.

Six days after Zerika put her foot down, I met with Kragar and Smiley Gilizar. Smiley had been protecting Nielar, and was pretty much recovered from being revivified. He got his name because he smiled almost as much as Varg--that is, not at all. Varg, however, rarely had any expression. Smiley had a permanent sneer. When he looked like he wanted to bite you in the leg, he was happy. When he got angry, his face became contorted. He had picked up an Eastern weapon called a lepip, which was a heavy metal bar with leather wrapped around it to prevent cuts. When he wasn't doing protection, he did muscle work. He'd started on the docks, collecting for a short-tempered lender called Cerill. When Cerill was fed up with being reasonable, he'd send Smiley, and then send someone else the next day to reason with whatever was left.

So Smiley sat there, scowling at Kragar and me, and I said, "Smiley, our friend H'noc is going to open up his brothel tomorrow evening. He's being protected by Abror and Nephital. I want you to go over to help them out."

He sneered even more, as if it were beneath him.

I knew him well enough to ignore this, however. I continued: "Stay out of the way of our customers, so you don't scare them. And if the guards try to shut the place down, just let them. Can you handle that?"

He snorted, which I took for a yes.

"Okay, be there at the eighth hour. That's all."

He left without a word. Kragar shook his head. "I'm amazed that you can get rid of him that easy, Vlad. You'd think you'd have to do a demon banishment or something." I shrugged. "He's never 'worked,' as far as I know."

Kragar grunted. "Anyway, we ought to know something by tomorrow. Any word from Narvane?"

"Not much. He's been going slow."

"I suppose. But he should at least be checking to see if Laris is opening something." I agreed. I got hold of Narvane and gave the necessary orders. Then I sighed. "I hate being in the dark like this. We have a good groundwork for the future, but we still know hardly anything about him."

Kragar nodded, then brightened. "Vlad!"

"Yes?"

"Morrolan!"

"Huh?"

"Aren't you his security consultant? Doesn't he have a spy network?"

"Sure, Kragar. And if you want to find out how many sorcerers Lord Whointheheck of the House of the Dragon has, I could tell you in three minutes, along with their specialties, ages, and tastes in wine. But that doesn't help us." He got a vacant look, and said, "There ought to be a way to use that..."

"If you think of one, let me know."

"I will."

H'noc reached me late in the evening of the next day.

"
Yes?
"

"
Just wanted to tell you that we haven't been bothered by any guards yet.
"

"
Good. Customers?
"

"
Maybe two.
"

"
Okay. It's a start. Have you seen anyone who looks like he might be working for
Laris?
"

"
How would I know?
"

"
All right. Stay in touch.
"

I looked up at Kragar, who was spending more time in my office than in his own these days. "I just talked to H'noc. No problems; no customers." He nodded. "If we make it through the night, maybe we should open up a cleaner tomorrow."

"Sure," I said. "Who?"

"I know a few thieves who've been talking about getting into that end."

"In the middle of a war?"

"Maybe."

"All right. Check into it."

"Will do."

Kragar found a cleaner, and we opened up a couple of nights later. At the same time, Narvane found out that Laris wasn't doing much of anything. We began to breathe easier. Soon, we decided, the Phoenix Guards would just disappear, and things would be back to normal.

Normal? Exactly what
was
"normal" at this point?

"Kragar, what happens when the Phoenix Guards disappear?"

"Things go back to... oh. I see what you mean. Well, in the first place, we're back on the defensive. He starts moving in on us, we start trying to find out all we can about him--and by the way, we should have more than just Narvane working on that."

"I know. We will, but--it seems to me that this is our big chance to get ahead."

"Uh...
what
is?"

"This. Now. When neither of us can attack the other, but we can get our businesses going again. We should push it as far as we can. Get as much going as possible, to build up some cash, and make as many friends among Laris's people as we can, get Narvane and whoever else we can digging into him--the whole bit." Kragar thought that over, then nodded. "You're right. We've got the cleaner working, that means we can open up a lender. Three days? Two?"

"Two. We're going to be paying extra bribes, but that shouldn't go on too long."

"Right. And once that's going, we could start one of the small shareba clubs. A week from today, say? If everything goes well?"

"That sounds right."

"Good. And we won't need too much protection at first. Let's put Wyrn and Miraf'n helping Narvane. And maybe Chimov and Glowbug, too. But keep them all on the rotation for bodyguards."

"Not Chimov. I don't want any free-lancer knowing too much about what I know. Make it N'aal. He isn't good at it, but he can learn."

"Okay. I'll talk to them, and let Narvane in on it."

"Good. Are we leaving anything out?"

"Probably, but nothing I can think of."

"Then let's get at it."

"
It's going to be nice seeing you do some work again, boss.
"

"
Shut up, Loiosh.
"

It took Narvane only a couple of days to work the extra help into his organization. The day the lender started, I began to get reports from them, and was impressed. While they still didn't know many of his people--and those they did were right at the bottom--they found out seven establishments that Laris was running. To our surprise, none of them had reopened. Laris was lying low. I didn't know whether to be overjoyed or nervous. But there were still Phoenix Guards all over the place, so we felt safe. A few days later, I opened up a small shareba game, and the next day a game of s'yang stones and a game of three-copper mud. Our list on Laris grew, but he
still
wasn't doing anything. I wondered what it meant.

"Hey, Kragar."

"Yeah?"

"How many Dzur does it take to sharpen a sword?"

"I dunno."

"Four. One to sharpen it, three to put up enough of a fight to make it worthwhile."

"Oh. Is there some point to that?"

"I think so. I think it has something to do with needing to have opposition in order to act."

"Hmmmm. Is this leading somewhere, or are you just being obscure?"

"I'm going to take a walk. Who's protecting me today?"

"A walk? Are you sure it's safe?"

"Of course not. Who's on duty?"

"Wyrn, Miraf'n, Varg, and Glowbug. What do you mean, a walk?"

"I'm going to visit my businesses. Word will get around that I did so, and that I'm not worried about either Laris or the Empire, customers will relax, and business will pick up. True or not true?"