The Book of Jhereg (76 page)

T
HE CHIMES SOUNDED, LIGHT
and tinkling, as I stepped into the shop. My grandfather was writing in a bound tablet with an old-fashioned pencil. As I came in he looked up and smiled.

“Vladimir!”

“Hello, Noish-pa.” I hugged him. We sat down and he said hello to Loiosh. Ambrus jumped into my lap and I greeted him properly. Ambrus never purred when stroked, but he somehow let you know when he liked what you were doing anyway. My grandfather told me once that Ambrus only purred when they were working magic together; the purr was a sign that everything was all right.

I studied my grandfather. Was he looking a bit older, a little more worn than he used to? I wasn’t sure. It’s hard to look at a familiar face as if it were that of a stranger. For some reason my eyes were drawn to his ankles, and I noticed how thin and frail they looked, even for his size. Yet, again for his size, his chest seemed large and well-muscled beneath a faded tunic of red and green. His head, bald save for the thinnest fringe of white hair, gleamed in the candlelight.

“So,” he said after a while.

“How are you feeling?”

“I am fine, Vladimir. And you?”

“About the same, Noish-pa.”

“Yes. There is something on your mind?”

I sighed. “Were you around in two twenty-one?”

He raised his eyebrows. “The riots? Yes. That was a bad time.” He shook his head as he spoke and the corners of his mouth fell. But it was funny; it seemed, at the same time, that his eyes lit up just a bit, way down deep.

I said, “You were involved?”

“Involved? How could I not be involved? It was everyone; we were part of it or we hid from it, but we were all involved.”

“Was my father involved?”

He gave me a look that I couldn’t read. Then he said, “Yes, your father, he was there. He and I, and your grandmother too, and my brother Jani. We were
at Twovine and Hilltop when the Empire tried to break us.” His voice hardened a bit as he said that. “Your father killed a Guard, too. With a butcher knife.”

“He did?”

He nodded.

I didn’t say anything for a while, trying to see how I felt about this. It seemed odd, and I wished I’d known it while my father was still alive. There was a brief pang from knowing that I’d never see him again. I finally said, “And you?”

“Oh, they gave me a post after the fight, so I guess I was there too.”

“A post?”

“I was a block delegate, for M’Gary Street north of Elm. So when we met, I had to go there for everyone from our neighborhood and say what we wanted.”

“I hadn’t known about that. Dad never talked about it.”

“Well, he was unhappy. That was when I lost your grandmother—when they came back in.”

“The Empire?”

“Yes. They came back with more troops—Dragons who had fought in the East.”

“Would you like to tell me about it?”

He sighed and looked away for a moment. I guess he was thinking about my grandmother. I wished I’d met her. “Perhaps another time, Vladimir.”

“Sure. All right. I noticed that Kelly looked at you as if he recognized you. Was it from then?”

“Yes. I knew him. He was young then. When we spoke of him before I didn’t know it was the same Kelly.”

“Is he a good man, Noish-pa?”

He glanced at me quickly. “Why this question?”

“Because of Cawti, I suppose.”

“Hmmph. Well, yes, he is good, perhaps, if what he does you call good.”

I tried to decipher that, then came at it from another angle. “You didn’t seem to think much of Cawti being involved with these people. Why is that, if you were involved in it yourself?”

He spread his hands. “Vladimir, if there is an uprising against the landlords, then of course you want to help. What else can you do? But this is different. She is looking to make trouble where there is none. And it was never something that came between Ibronka—your grandmother—and me.”

“It didn’t?”

“Of course not. That happened, and we were all a part of it. We had to be part of it or we would be with the counts and the landlords and the bankers. It was one or the other then, it was not a thing for which I abandoned my family.”

“I see. Is that what you want to tell Cawti, if she comes to see you?”

“If she asks I will tell her.”

I nodded. I wondered how Cawti would react, and decided that I no longer knew her well enough to guess. I changed the topic then, but I kept noticing
that he gave me funny looks from time to time. Well, I could hardly blame him.

I let things churn around in my head. Franz’s ghost or no Franz’s ghost, it would be most convenient for me if Kelly and his whole band were to fall off the edge of the world, but there was no good way to arrange that.

It also seemed that the biggest problem with getting to Herth was that he could take as much time as he wanted in getting me, and it wasn’t hurting him at all. The Easterners had cut back on his business in some neighborhoods, but not all, and he still had his contacts and hired muscle and legmen all set to go back to business as usual as soon as the time was right. And he was a Dragaeran; he would live another thousand years or so, so what was his hurry?

If I could make him move at all, I might be able to force him out into the open, where I could get another shot at him. Furthermore . . . hmmm. My grandfather was silent, watching me as if he knew how fast my brain was working. I started putting together a new plan. Loiosh had no comment on it. I looked at it from a couple of different directions as I sipped herb tea. I held the plan in my head and bounced it off several different possible problems, and it rebounded just fine. I decided to go ahead with it.

“You have an idea, Vladimir?”

“Yes, Noish-pa.”

“Well, you should be about it then.”

I stood up. “You’re right.”

He nodded and said nothing more. I bade him good-bye while Loiosh flew out of the door in front of me. Loiosh said everything was all right. I was still feeling worried about Quaysh. It would be much harder to implement my plan if I were dead.

I had only walked a couple of blocks when I was approached. I was passing an outdoor market, and she was leaning against a building, her hands behind her back. She seemed to be about fifteen years old and wore a peasant skirt of yellow and blue. The skirt was slit, which meant nothing, but her legs were shaved, which meant a great deal.

She moved away from the wall as I walked by and she said hello. I stopped and wished her a pleasant day. It suddenly occurred to me that this could be a set-up; I ran a hand through my hair and adjusted my cloak. She seemed to think I was trying to impress her and showed me a pair of dimples. I wondered how much extra the dimples were worth.

“
Anything, Loiosh?
”

“
Too crowded to tell for sure, boss, but I don’t see Quaysh
.”

I decided it was probably just what it seemed to be.

She asked if I cared to take her somewhere for a drink. I said maybe. She asked if I cared to take her somewhere for a screw. I asked her how much, she said ten and seven, which worked out to an Imperial, which was a third of what my tags were charging.

I said, “Sure.” She nodded without bothering with the dimples and led me around the corner. I let a knife fall into my hand, just in case. We entered an
inn that displayed a sign with several bees buzzing about a hive. She spoke to the innkeeper and I put my knife away. I handed him seven silver coins. He gestured with his head toward the stairs and said, “Room three.” The inn was pretty full for the afternoon, and there was a haze of blue smoke. It smelled old and foul and stale. I would have guessed that everyone in the place was a drunk.

She led me up to room three. I insisted she go in first and watched her for signs that someone else was in there. I didn’t see any. When she turned back to me, Loiosh flew in.

“
Okay, boss. It’s safe
.”

She said, “Do you want
that
in here, too?”

I said, “Yeah.”

She shrugged and said, “Okay.”

I entered the room. The curtain fell shut behind me. There was a mattress on the floor and a table next to it. I gave her an Imperial. “Keep it,” I said.

“Thanks.”

She took off her blouse. Her body was young. I didn’t move. She looked at me and said, “Well?”

As I came toward her, she put on a fake dreamy smile, turned her face up to me, and held her arms out. I slapped her. She stepped back and said, “Hey!” I moved in and slapped her again. She said, “None of that!” I drew a knife from my cloak and held it up. She screamed.

As the sound echoed and bounced around the room, I grabbed her arm and dragged her into a corner next to the doorway and held her there. There was fear in her eyes now. I said, “That’s enough. Open your mouth again and I’ll kill you.” She nodded, watching my face. I heard footsteps outside and I let go of her. The curtain swung aside and a big bludgeon entered, followed by a large Easterner with a black beard.

He charged in, stopped when he saw the empty room, and started to look around. Before he had a chance to do so I had grabbed hold of his hair and was pulling his head into my knife, which was pressed against the back of his neck. I said, “Drop the club.” He tensed as if he were about to spring and I pressed harder. He relaxed and the club fell to the floor. I turned to the whore. The look on her face told me that this was her pimp, rather than just a bouncer for the inn or some interested citizen. “Okay,” I told her. “Get out of here.”

She ran around us to pick up her blouse and left without looking at either of us, or stopping to dress. The pimp said, “You a bird?”

I blinked. “Bird? Phoenix. Phoenix Guard. I like that. Lord Khaavren will like that. No, I’m not. Don’t be stupid. Who do you work for?”

He said, “Huh?”

I kicked the back of his knee and he sat down. I knelt on his chest and put the point of my knife in front of his left eye. I repeated my question. He said, “I don’t work for anyone. I’m on my own.”

I said, “So I can do whatever I want to you, and no one will protect you, is that right?”

This put a different light on things. He said, “No, I got protection.”

I said, “Good. Who?”

Then his eyes fell on the jhereg emblazoned on my cloak. He licked his lips and said, “I don’t want to get involved.”

I couldn’t help smiling at that. “How much more involved can you get?”

“Yeah, but—”

I created some pain for him. He yelped. I said, “Who protects you?”

He gave me an Eastern name that I didn’t recognize. I moved the knife a bit away from his face, relaxed my hold on him a little and said, “Okay. I’m working for Kelly. Know who I mean?” He nodded. I said, “Good. I want you off the streets. For good. You’re out of business as of now, okay?” He nodded again. I grabbed a lock of his hair then, sliced it off with my knife, held it in front of him and put it away inside my cloak. His eyes widened. I said, “I can find you now any time I want to. Understand?” He understood. “All right. I’m going to be back here in a few days. I’ll want to see that fine young lady I just spoke to. And I want to see that she hasn’t been hurt. If she has been I’ll take pieces of you home with me. If I can’t find her, I won’t bother with the pieces. Can you understand that?” Apparently we were still communicating; he nodded. I said, “Good,” and left him there. I saw no sign of the tag.

I left the inn and walked west about half a mile and went into a little cellar place. I asked the host, an ugly, squinty guy, if he knew where I could find some action.

“Action?”

“Action. You know, shereba, s’yang-stones, whatever.”

He looked at me blankly until I passed an Imperial across the counter. Then he gave me an address a few doors down. I followed his directions and, sure enough, there were three shereba tables in use. I spotted the guy who was running it, sitting with the back of his chair against a wall, dozing. I said, “Hi. Sorry to bother you.”

He opened one eye. “Yeah?”

I said, “Know who Kelly is?”

“Huh?”

“Kelly. You know, the guy who shut down the whole—”

“Yeah, yeah. What about him?”

“I work for him.”

“Huh?”

“You’re out of business. Game over. Closed. Get everyone out of here.”

The room was small, and I’d been making no effort to keep my voice down. The card playing had stopped and everyone was watching me. Just as the pimp had, this guy noticed the stylized jhereg on my cloak. He seemed puzzled. “Look,” he said. “I don’t know who you are, or what kind of game you’re playing—”

I stole a trick from the Phoenix Guards: I smacked him across the side of his
head with the hilt of a dagger, then brandished the dagger. I said, “Does this straighten things out for you?” I heard movement behind me.

“
Trouble, Loiosh?
”

“
No, boss. They’re leaving
.”

“
Good
.”

When the room was empty, I let the guy up. I said, “I’ll be checking on you. If this place does anymore business, I’ll have your ass. Now get out.”

He left in a hurry. I left more slowly. I allowed myself one evil chuckle, just because I felt like it. By the time I was done it was early evening and I’d terrorized three whores, as many pimps, two game operators, a bookie and a cleaner.

A good day’s work, I decided. I headed back to the office to talk to Kragar, to put the second part of the plan into operation.

* * *

Kragar thought I was crazy.

“You’re crazy, Vlad.”

“Probably.”

“They’ll all just desert you.”

“I’m going to keep paying them.”

“How?”

“I’m rich, remember?”

“How long can that last?”

“A few weeks, of which I’ll only need one.”

“One?”

“Yeah. I spent today stirring up Herth and Kelly and pointing them at each other.” I gave him a quick summary of the day’s activities. “It’ll take them maybe a day, each, to figure out who really did it. Herth will come after me with everything he has, and Kelly . . .”

“Yeah?”