by Steven Brust
“Doing all right, chum?”
“Grand, Boss. And Rocza is fine, too. And so are you, by the way, though I was worried there for a bit.”
“Yeah, me too.”
“I think I’m jealous, though.”
“Bite me.”
He did, but in the nicest possible way.
Sethra knelt next to the Necromancer, who stirred and shook her head as if to clear it—positively the most human thing I had ever seen her do.
“They broke the Necromancer’s block, didn’t they?”
“Brute force and desperation,” said the Demon Goddess in her strange voice, made even stranger by the awful silence. “But for some reason, they released their link to the amorphia.”
“So we won?” asked Sethra, sounding surprised.
Verra looked at Morrolan and Teldra lying on the ground, and nodded.
Aliera said, in the strangest voice I’d ever heard from her, “Daddy did it. Daddy took their link from them.”
Sethra stared at her.
Aliera nodded and said, “I asked him to, and he did.” Well, it was nice to know they were doing something while I was distracted.
Sethra looked out over the Sea and said, “Adron is out there?”
“Yes. I suspected he would be.”
“Conscious? Aware?” said Sethra.
Aliera shrugged. I understood that shrug. “Consciousness” and “awareness” aren’t always clear-cut concepts, as I had just learned. There were tears in Aliera’s eyes. Well, there was plenty to cry about, I suppose, and there’d be more if we didn’t get to work on Morrolan soon. I looked over to where the Jenoine had been, but there was no trace they had ever been there; the gods and even the dragon were gone as well. It was only Sethra and Aliera and the Necromancer and the Goddess and me; and Morrolan and what had been Teldra. Morrolan’s sword had returned to his side, still gripped by his dead hand; I’m not sure when that happened.
“We need to get to work on Morrolan,” said Aliera, her eyes still glistening.
Sethra stood up and nodded to her. “Yes,” she said. “And quickly.” She looked at Teldra’s body, lying on the ground, then at the weapon in my hand, then at me.
“Well done, Vlad,” she said.
Aliera, standing dazed and bloody behind her, but with a grim expression on her face, nodded. The Demon Goddess, however, had eyes only for the blade I carried. Well, who could blame her?
“You can put that thing away now,” she said at last.
I looked into her eyes and chuckled. “Very well, my Goddess.”
Verra scowled.
I cleaned her on the Jenoine’s body—some customs must be observed, after all—then sheathed her, with some regret, my hand trailing over the smooth, gold hilt that had once been Spellbreaker. I was delighted to discover that sheathing her did not diminish the sense of her personality.
I watched Verra, who was looking back at me, but she had nothing more to say. With an aimless gesture of farewell, she turned into shimmering sparks and was gone. Sethra, meanwhile, had lifted Morrolan in her arms.
“Come, stand next to me,” she said.
Aliera looked out over the Sea, I suppose saying farewell to her father. Then Aliera, the Necromancer, and I took positions next to Sethra, and then we were gone from that place, and we were once more in the heart of Dzur Mountain.
17
Taking One’s Leave of Friends
They laid Morrolan on a couch, and Aliera and the Necromancer began working on him. I watched for a while, then turned to Sethra. “So we won.”
She nodded. “Yes, I’d call this a victory. They wanted to establish their own link to amorphia. That is, a permanent link, on our world, with which to challenge us. They failed to do so. And we destroyed two of them, which is no small feat.”
“Good.”
Sethra shook her head and murmured, “Adron.”
“Yes.”
“It’s hard to believe. Sentience is, well, I don’t know.”
“Yeah, sentience is a strange thing, isn’t it?
She glanced up at me, catching my tone of voice, and said, “I shall miss her.”
“Yes,” I said. Then, “Did you know?”
Her eyes widened. “You mean, what was going to happen?”
“Yes. Teldra, the weapon—all of it.”
“No, Vlad. I had no idea. If I’d had any idea, I should never have—no, I didn’t know.”
“What was it you yelled to me, in the middle of it all?”
She gave me an ironic smile. “You don’t want to know.”
“Probably not, Sethra, but tell me anyway.”
“I told you to watch out for Teldra. It looked like she was contemplating doing something foolish.”
“Yeah, I guess she was.”
“But I suppose it is best for all of us that it turned out that way.”
“All of us, except for Lady Teldra.”
“Yes. Well, you are now a member of a rather exclusive club, Vlad. You are one of those the gods have cause to fear. Congratulations to you, and to Godslayer.”
“Lady Teldra,” I corrected her gently.
She shrugged. “As you prefer.”
I touched the hilt and it was almost as if I could feel her fingers touching mine. I said, “Do you suppose the Jenoine knew?”
“No,” said Sethra. “They would never have put the weapon into your hands if they had suspected. They wanted you to kill Verra, just as they said.”
“You mean, that was it? They really expected me to just go and kill her?”
“Yes, which would have allowed them access to the Lesser Sea, where they could have established their own link—that is, a permanent one, with, in essence, their own Orb. It would have been a powerful blow against us. Although, knowing that Adron is still, in a sense, in there, I don’t know what effect that would have had.”
I shook my head. “But Sethra, all kidding aside, I was never going to kill Verra. I mean, I never even thought seriously about it.”
“Yes, I know.”
“It doesn’t make sense.”
“It doesn’t make sense to us, Vlad.”
“If they have so little understanding of us, Sethra, I’m not sure how worried about them we should be.”
“Whatever their understanding, they have a great deal of power.”
“But still. With such intricate plans, how can they be that far off?”
“They don’t understand us, that’s all. They never have. Talk to Verra sometime; that’s been their flaw from the beginning “
“I don’t think the Demon Goddess wants to have a lot to do with me these days. And that’s fine with me.”
“Yes, I suppose it is. And Vlad—”
“Yes?”
“Should I happen not to be around when Lady Teldra wakes up, you will not forget to give her my regards?”
“Wakes up? What do you mean?”
She smiled. “I think I’d rather not tell you.”
Damn her.
Aliera, still bloody and dazed-looking, stumbled over and sat down next to us. I looked over at Morrolan, and saw the gentle rise and fall of his chest.
I nodded to Aliera. “Congratulations,” I said.
She nodded and closed her eyes.
Sethra said, “Good. Now let’s see to you.” Aliera was, evidently, too exhausted to argue; she struggled to her feet, and accompanied Sethra out of the room.
The Necromancer walked over from Morrolan’s side and sat down opposite me. We looked at each other for a while, and then she said, “I can bring you wherever you’d like.”
“Thanks,” I said. I looked over at Morrolan. “Who gets to tell him about Teldra?”
“Sethra, I should imagine.”
“Lucky Sethra.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Same thing I’ve been doing.”
“You have rather less to fear from the Jhereg now—at least, Morganti weapons shouldn’t frighten you
as much.”
“That’s true. But I’ve recovered a bit from the bravado I was feeling, uh, earlier. I’d just as soon not give them a chance.”
She nodded. “Where then?”
“Perhaps I’ll visit my grandfather.”
“I’m certain he’d like that.”
“Or else I’ll head East.”
“Your ancestral homeland?”
“Yes. I was there once before, and rather liked it. Maybe I’ll organize a defense there, in case Sethra the Younger decides to try to conquer it. I beat her once, maybe I can beat her again.”
She studied me for a little. “When did this idea come to you?” she said at last.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Just now, I guess, while I was talking to you. Why?”
“It sounds a little public-spirited for you, Vlad.”
“Maybe it’s Lady Teldra’s influence,” I said ironically.
“That’s what I was thinking,” she said, without irony.
“Oh,” I said. “Well, maybe I’ll do something else.”
“Is Lady Teldra’s influence that bad a thing?”
I thought about that. “No, I suppose not.”
“I shall miss her,” said the Necromancer. “And you,” she added.
I almost made an ironic remark about that, just out of reflex, but I refrained.
Maybe my reflexes were changing, but I didn’t care to examine them too closely to find out.
I said, “Has anything exciting been happening in Adrilankha lately?”
She smiled a little. “I’m afraid I don’t keep up on such matters.”
I nodded. “All right,” I said, deciding suddenly. “Here’s what I’m going to do. I’m bloody well going into Adrilankha, and I’m bloody well going to have a meal at Valabar’s, and if the Jhereg find me, fine, and if they don’t, I’ll figure out what I’m going to do next while I eat. If there’s one thing I’ve missed—”
There was a soft moan from the couch. As I looked, Morrolan’s eyes fluttered open. His mouth opened and he tried to speak, but couldn’t manage.
“We won,” I told him. “It wasn’t pretty, but we won.”
No, I wasn’t going to be the one to tell him.
“Boss, your stomach is going to be the death of us all.”
“Very probably, chum. But don’t complain, you get the scraps.”
“Oh, I’m not complaining. Just observing.”
Rocza shifted on my other shoulder; I imagine Loiosh had given her a hint of what was coming. For a wild jhereg, it hadn’t taken her long to develop a taste for civilized food.
“All right,” I told the Necromancer. “Let’s go, then.”
“Now? You don’t wish to wait for Sethra and Aliera?”
“Please give them my farewell.”
“You sure, Boss? Right now?”
“I don’t want to be here anymore.”
The Necromancer stood up. I said, “Can you put me right in front of their door?”
“Easily,” she said.
“Good, then.”
“What are you going to have?”
“I don’t know, but it will start and end with klava.”
Morrolan cleared his throat, tried to speak, then exhaled loudly and lay back.
“I’m sorry,” I told him.
He looked at me, eyebrows raised.
I shook my head. The Necromancer put her hand on my shoulder, I put my hand on Lady Teldra. Loiosh and Rocza took their positions, and Dzur Mountain was gone, and I was outdoors, facing the familiar sight of Valabar’s, which, of all things, hadn’t changed a bit. I smelled onions and garlic and broiling kethna. There were no assassins waiting to kill me, at least yet.
I removed my amulets from their box and put them back on, just out of reflex, and stepped inside.