by Steven Brust
At this time of the day—it was still early afternoon—I had the place to myself save for a bored-looking middle-aged barmaid, who asked if I wanted anything. My appetite had returned, so I ended up getting some decent bean soup and a loaf of bread served with garlic cloves and a lot of butter. Good butter.
As the barmaid was bringing me a glass of bitter-tasting wine called Enekesner (I got the name to be certain I never accidentally ordered it again), I asked her when Eelie would be showing up.
"Won't be in today," she said.
"Where can I find her?"
She looked me over. She'd done something to darken her eyebrows, and something else to make her lips shiny. I've always wondered about stuff like that. But not too much.
"Don't waste your time," she said.
"Is she a friend of yours?"
She shrugged. "Not especially. Why?"
I pulled out three silver coins and let them ring on top of the table. "Where can I find her?"
Her eyes widened, and she said, "Upstairs, room at the end of the hall."
I was glad the barmaid hadn't been a friend of hers; it would have cost me another coin. I took my time finishing the meal, then went to the back and up the stairs. I had to hit the door twice before I heard a faint voice say, "What is it?"
"My name is Merss," I said. "I want to talk to you."
"Go away," she suggested.
"Open the door," I suggested back, "or I'll knock the bloody thing down."
There was a pause, and the door opened. She was pretty enough, I guess, except for her eyes. She'd been crying.
"Tell me what you know," I said, continuing with the whole suggestion line.
"What the hell does it matter to you?" She started crying again. I ignored it.
"I'm going to find out who did it, and kill him," I said.
Her red eyes widened a little. "Why?" she said, barely whispering.
"I'm just in that kind of a mood," I said. "Tell me what you know."
She hesitated again, then stood aside, which I took as an invitation to enter her room. I did so, and she shut the door. It was a tiny room, with little enough to show who she was, and that little I paid no attention to. There was the bed and a chair. She didn't suggest I sit, so I just stood there and waited.
"You talked to him last night," she said.
"Yeah."
"He told me about you. He thought you ..."
"What?"
"He thought you were funny." She started sobbing. I leaned against the door and waited. A moment later she said, "I'm sorry."
"I'm told a witch killed him."
"He had the witch-mark."
"What is the witch-mark?"
Her eyes flicked to Loiosh and Rocza, then back to me; her forehead was creased. "Different lands, different customs, different ways of doing things," I told her. "I've heard of a witch's mark, something that indicates a person is a witch. I don't think you're using the term that way, and, anyway, I don't believe in them. Fill me in. What is a witch-mark?"
"When they found him, his lips were red."
"Um," I said. "Why is that called a witch-mark?"
"You really don't know?"
Patience, Vlad. "I really don't know."
"A witch will send an imp down your throat to your heart. The imp leaves red footprints on the lips."
There were some problems with that—the first being that you can't really get to the heart from the throat (you pick up a bit of anatomy when you kill people for a living), the second being that I don't believe in imps.
To be sure, there is a way to kill someone using the Art that will leave red lips; it involves a simple transformation, replacing the contents of his lungs with the smoke from your brazier. But—
Okay, now wasn't the time. "All right," I said. "Where was he found?"
She looked at me for a long moment, then looked at her bed, then back at me.
"Oh," I said.
"He was going to marry me," she said. "He told me so."
I nodded, choosing not to ask when he had told her and how many times for fear she might take it the right way. Okay, so I'm a bastard; but there are limits. "I'm sorry," I told her. "I'll leave you alone now."
"You'll find out who did it?" she said, and there was something a little scary in her eyes.
"Yes, I will. I'll also find out why."
"And you'll kill him?"
"Yes," I said. "I will."
"Good," she said. "Will you make it slow?"
"I'll make it certain."
She nodded.
Okay, maybe I shouldn't have told her that; I certainly would never have admitted that I was going to kill someone to anyone, ever, back in the Empire. And maybe I was a bit too contemptuous of what this kingdom used for law, and should have been more worried. But I wanted to give her that much, and, in the event, of all the things that turned around and bit me, that wasn't one; so I guess I got away with it, if you like.
I left her and went back down to the main room and from there back into the stench. It hit me hard that time, I remember; almost like a blow. My stomach turned and I actually gagged there, in the street; the reeking foulness of the whole town was suddenly, just for a moment, too much for me. I made my way back to the Pointy Hat; I can remember my eyes felt glazed and it was all I could do to put one foot in front of another until I'd passed the threshold.
I made it to my table, and, yeah, they had the same subtle incense here they did at the other place, only I couldn't see where it came from. It helped, though. I'd never been fond of incense before; it was another tool of the Art, not something one used just to brighten up one's day. I know that many witches—including my grandfather—live so that there is no clear distinction between practicing the Art and simply living; subtle spells and charms are part of his life. Not me; for me there had always been a sharp line: Here I was doing a spell, here I was done with it. But now, maybe that was changing. I could imagine getting very fond of incense. I could just imagine the look on Cawti's face when I told her I was— Yeah, shake it off, Vlad.
The thought of brandy repulsed me, and I didn't need coffee, so I did something unusual for me: I had the host draw me a summer ale. It was warmer than I'd have liked, but not too bitter. I nodded my approval to Inchay, who gave me a rare smile. I guess he was proud of his ale.
I sat and drank it slowly while my head stopped turning, and gradually I was able to focus on the problem in front of me. I got up and paced a bit, earning me a look from the host; then I sat down again. It hit me that one thing that was so odd was that there was so much violence going on, and I was pretty sure I was somehow at the center of it, but I wasn't doing any of it, and none of it was directed at me. I wasn't used to that.
Well, but let's think about that, Vlad. If they aren't trying to kill you, there's a reason.
The most likely reason is that they know that if they try, you're liable to put a nice pretty shine on a whole lot of them. Which immediately calls up the question: How do they know that? It isn't like I was walking around looking dangerous, or anything. Was the mere fact that I openly carried a blade sufficient to tell them? It didn't seem likely. So either they're good enough to spot me for what I am, or else they have some reason to suspect I'm someone they shouldn't touch. Or they know who I am.
To be sure, the Guild knew my name, as did whatever witch or witches had pulled it from my mind. But how much more had they gotten? Enough to know to get a message to the Jhereg? And, if so, would they want to? Would they know how?
It was possible. It was possible there was an assassin heading this way, right now, as fast as teleportation and feet could carry him. But why? If they were going to do that, it would be for the money. If they did manage to get hold of the right people in the Jhereg, they wouldn't be told to lay off me; they'd be told they could get a lot of money for delivering my head.
Morganti.
The Jhereg would want it done their way. So, if I assume there is some means of communication betwe
en some group here and the Jhereg—dubious, but possible—they could have been told to keep me in town, but not to kill me, and that would account for at least some of what was going on.
Maybe, but it certainly seemed like a stretch. Especially considering that they wouldn't have let me know that my name wasn't a secret; nor would anyone working for them. At least, not if they had any sense.
All in all, it was more likely there was something entirely different going on: something that had to do with the complex politics of a strange Guild, a Count who owned a factory— excuse me, a "mill"—and whatever forces there were that I didn't know about. If so, then whatever was going on, it made them believe I was someone they couldn't touch directly.
"What do you think, chum?"
"I think you're right, Boss. Someone wants you not to find out something, and they don't dare come after you directly."
"Suggestions?"
"You mean, other than leaving?"
"Yeah, other than that."
"No."
I considered the plan I'd come up with, all of—uh, two days ago? The people I'd want to get information from were dead, or had dropped out of sight, or had managed to forestall me one way or another. But I had learned a few things, hadn't I?
Yes.
I'd learned that there were all sorts of talk of witchcraft, and maybe it had been used to kill someone, it had certainly been used to burn a house down, and it was unlike the Art I knew, and there were two sides, one of which involved my family, and they were dead, and the other side—Had been bloody noticeable by its absence.
Okay.
I needed to find out who those witches were. A Coven? A bunch of individuals who practiced the Art in some particular way that I didn't know about, one of whom happened to be worried about me finding something out? No, there was a Coven of some kind; with all the strange politics in this town, there couldn't not be. How to find it, and learn about it? Yeah, okay, now at least I had a direction.
Part of the problem is that, at the best of times, witches tend to be secretive. I once asked my grandfather why that was, and he gave me one of those "that's the way it is" kind of answers. I've always hated those. So, how, then, to find a witch?
"Loiosh? You must have a touch of the Sight."
"You're just a laugh a minute, Boss. Okay, what do you want me to do?"
"Nothing special, just stay aware for any castings. If you pick up on one, I want to know where it's coming from."
"Boss, I'd have to be almost on top of it to tell, or else it would have to be an awfully strong Working."
"I know. Just stay aware."
"All right.”
I wondered where Orbahn was, and why he'd been making himself so scarce. It was far from impossible that he was dead by now, like Zollie, and his body concealed.
I wondered where Zollie's body was now, and if I could get permission to look at it, and if I could tell anything if I wanted to risk removing my amulet again, and if I dared do so. The answers were something like "probably not" all the way down the line. But I thought about his red lips and wondered.
8
Boraan (shrugging): He is a Jhegaala. We can't know how a Jhegaala will react until we know what stage he is at.
Lefitt: Indeed. That is just how one generally finds out.
Boraan: Inefficient, to be sure.
Lefitt: Irritating.
Boraan: Frustrating.
Lefitt: Enraging.
Boraan: Monstrous.
Lefitt: They ought to be required to wear signs.
—Miersen, Six Parts Water Day Two, Act I, Scene 1
Evening fell, and business picked up a little as it became too dark to work the fields; at the same time, at the other place, workmen would be coming from the mill. All of them, in both places, tired, sweaty, stinking, and determined to forget their dreary lives. Peasants are ignorant and filthy; workmen are smelly and loud. Put 'em together and shake 'em up however you want, and what's the difference? And these were the people Cawti had thrown me over for. How do you make sense of that?
I guess you don't make sense of it, you just deal with it. There's a lot of stuff like that.
I went out into the evening and walked west down the road. A few steps and I was out of the town; I continued about a quarter of a mile the way I'd first come. It was amazing how alone I was. The few lights from Burz did nothing to break up the darkness. There was a breeze in my face and no stench. I looked up. Stars, small lights against the dead black of the sky of these human lands, glittered.
How long I was out there, I don't know, but eventually Loiosh said, "Someone's coming, Boss." A moment later I heard footsteps. I probably should have been ready, had a dagger in my hand or something, but I was in a mood. In any case, I wasn't attacked.
The footsteps stopped. Someone had good night vision. "Lord Merss?"
It was a male voice, and not one I recognized. I didn't turn around. "Yes," I said.
"I've been looking for you."
"And you've found me. You must tell me how you do it. I haven't found anything I've been looking for since I set foot in this bloody town."
"You weren't that hard to find. Call me Dahni."
"Good to meet you, Dahni. What's your part in all of this?"
"Ah, there's the question, isn't it?" he said. "Too many factions and none of them to be trusted."
"I couldn't have said it better myself. There's something about your speech that—"
"No, I'm not a native of this country. I'm from a small kingdom to the east where the women are prettier but the food isn't as good."
"Choose the food," I said. "Can't go wrong that way."
"And so I did."
"Wise."
"Yes, indeed. But, speaking of wisdom, you've put yourself into a bit of what you'd call a situation, haven't you?"
"Have I? And here I thought things were going swimmingly."
"I can help."
"All right, I'm listening."
"First, you're going to want to know why you should listen to me."
"Not at all. I'm listening to you because I like your accent."
He laughed. "You and I could get along, Lord Merss. All right, then, why you should believe me."
"That's going to take some work, yes."
"I'm here as a favor for a friend."
"What's his name?"
He laughed again. "You don't expect me to answer that, do you?"
"Not really, no."
"So then, this friend thinks you might be in a position to do him some good, and that he could do you some good in exchange."
"I'm still listening."
"I'm guessing that what you need more than anything is information."
"Good guess."
"Well, here I am. Ask me things. Preferably things you can check."
Nice idea, that. Only it wasn't so simple: You can learn a lot by what someone wants to know, and I wasn't inclined to let this guy learn a lot. So far, he'd done exactly nothing to convince me I could trust him.
"Anyone else around, Loiosh?"
"No, Boss.”
"Okay," I said. "Tell me why this town is so strange."
"Mmmm," he said. "Haven't been in Fenario long, have you:
"No."
"This town isn't any more strange than any other in this country. Each has its idiosyncrasies."
"Idiosyncrasies."
"The King rarely exerts much control over the counties. They go as they go, and whatever oddities crop up, determine the nature of that county. Now, if you want to see a really odd place, head all the way east into the mountains, not far from my country. There's a place called Tuz where they train goats to smuggle by getting them to—"
"All right," I said. "I get the idea. Each county is on its own."
"Yes. And this one took a turn, oh, I don't know, a few hundred years ago, maybe, when some peasant turned up an old recipe for making really good paper, and making it in quantity. He sold it to the Count—probably in exchange for
a wagon and two horses to get himself out of town—and since then—"
"Tell me what you can about this friend of yours. What does he imagine I can do for him?"
"You have a common enemy, that's always a good basis an alliance of some sort."
"All right. Who is the enemy?"
"Don't you know?"
"Don't play games with me, Dahni."
"Eh, this is all a big game, Lord Merss. That's why I'm here; play games well, because I can always find the cracks in the rules."
"And you're careful never to spell out what the rules are to any other players who don't know."
"Exactly."
"Good, then. I'm happy for you. Have your fun. Who is the enemy?"
"I'm sorry, Lord Taltos."
There are any number of ways of dealing with someone who is trying to get information from you, and who you think might be good enough to pull it off. I thought about the simplest one: I almost killed him right then and there. I could have, too. I couldn't see him, but Loiosh knew where he was. I came very close. It would have been a mistake, certainly—I had no real reason to, and if I had, things would have gone, let's say, differently. But I wanted to.
"Turn and walk away," I told him.
I guess he must have picked up something from my tone, because he didn't say another word. I heard his boot-steps receding.
"Loiosh, keep track of him. I want to make sure he isn't waiting somewhere"
He flew off and did so, reporting that he'd gone back to town, and was last seen entering a house. Loiosh marked which house it was, then came back. He also made sure I was walking the right way back to town.
The light from the inn grew quickly, until it was hurting my eyes. I walked more slowly to give my vision time to adjust.
"Well now. That was certainly interesting. Did we get more information than we gave away?"
"You're the expert on that, Boss. I'm just eyes with wings."
"And a good sense of the arcane." We had reached the door of the Hat.
"Is that a question? No, I haven't picked up any witchcraft."