by Steven Brust
Kragar was waiting for me. He looked unhappy. That was all right; why should he be any different?
"What is it?" I asked him.
"Herth."
"What about him?"
"He doesn't have a mistress, he doesn't eat soup, and he never takes a—"
"What do you mean? You can't find out anything about him?"
"No, I tracked him pretty well. The good news is that he isn't a sorcerer. But other than that, he's like you; he doesn't have any regular schedule. And he doesn't have an office; he works right out of his home. He never visits the same inn twice in a row, and I haven't found any pattern at all to his movements."
I sighed. "I half expected that. Well, keep on it. Eventually something will show up. No one lives a completely random life."
He nodded and walked out.
I put my feet up on the desk, then took them down again. I got up and paced. It hit me once more that Herth was planning to send me for a walk. There was probably someone out there, right now, trying to pin down my movements so he could get me. I looked out my office window but I didn't see anyone standing in the street opposite my door holding a dagger. I sat down again. Even if I managed to get Herth first, whoever it was had still taken the money, was still committed to getting me. I shivered.
There was one thing, at least: I could relax about Cawti for a while. Herth had given them another subtle warning. He wouldn't do anything else until he saw what effect that had. This meant that I could work on keeping myself alive. How? Well, I could gain some time by killing whoever was after me, which would force Herth to go to the bother of finding another assassin.
Good idea, Vlad. Now, how you gonna do it?
I thought of a way. Loiosh didn't like it. I asked him if he had any other suggestions and he didn't. I decided to do it at once, before I could consider how stupid it was. I got up and walked out of the office without speaking to anyone.
Loiosh tried to spot him as I wandered around the neighborhood, checking on my businesses, but didn't manage. Either I wasn't being followed, or the guy was skilled. I spent the late morning and early afternoon at this. My own effort wasn't so much directed at spotting my assassin as at looking as if I felt safe. Trying to appear calm under such circumstances is not easy.
Finally, as the afternoon wore on, I headed back for the Easterners' section. There, at the same time as I had on the previous two days, I stationed myself near Kelly's headquarters and I waited. I had no more than passing interest in who went in and out of there, but I noticed that it was quite active. Cawti showed up with my friend Gregory, each of them carrying large boxes. Easterners and Teckla I didn't recognize ran in and out of the place all day. As I said, though, I didn't watch too closely. I was waiting for the assassin to make his move.
This was not the perfect place to get me, you understand; I was mostly hidden by the corner of a building and could see nearly everywhere around me. Loiosh watched over my head. But it was the only place I'd been going to at a regular time over the past few days. If I could keep this up, he'd realize that it was his best shot at me. He'd take it, and maybe I could kill him, which would give me a rest while Herth found someone else.
The unfortunate part was that I had no idea when he'd move. Staying alert for an attack for several hours is not easy, especially when what you want is to go charging out and hurt someone just for the sake of doing so.
Easterners and Teckla continued to come and go from Kelly's place. As the afternoon wore on, they would leave carrying large stacks of paper. One of them, a Teckla I didn't recognize, had a pot and brushes as well as the sheets of paper, and he started gluing them up on the walls of buildings: Passers-by stopped to read them, then went on their way.
I spent several hours there and the presumed assassin never showed. That was all right; he probably wasn't in a hurry. It was also possible he had a better idea for where to shine me. I was especially careful as I began to walk home. I arrived without incident.
Cawti still wasn't home when I dropped off to sleep.
The next day I got up without waking her. I cleaned up the place a bit, made some klava, and sat around drinking it and shadow-fencing. Loiosh was involved in some sort of deep conversation with Rocza until Cawti got up a bit later and took her out. Cawti left without saying a word. I stayed around the house until late in the afternoon, when I went back to that same spot.
The previous day I'd noticed that Kelly's people had seemed busy. Today the place was empty. There was no activity of any kind. After a while, I carefully left my little niche and looked at one of the posters they'd been gluing up the day before. It announced a rally, to be held today, and said something about ending oppression and murder.
I thought about finding the rally—but decided I didn't want to deal with one of those again. I went back to my spot and waited. It was just about then that they began to show up. Kelly came back first, along with Paresh. Then several I didn't recognize, then Cawti, then more I didn't recognize. Most of them were Easterners, but there were a few Teckla.
They kept coming, too. There was a constant stream of traffic through that little place, and still more milling around outside. It made me so curious that a couple of times I caught myself paying more attention to them than to the probable assassin who was probably watching me. This would be—what?—the fourth day I'd stationed myself there. If the assassin were reckless, he'd have taken me on the third. If he were exceptionally careful, he'd wait another couple of days, or for a place more to his liking. What would I have done? Interesting question. I would either have waited for a better place, or made my move today. I almost smiled, thinking of it that way. Today is the day I would have killed myself if I'd been paid to.
I shook my head. My mind was wandering again. Loiosh took off from my shoulder, flew around a bit, then resumed his place.
"He's either not here or he's well hidden, boss."
"Yeah. What do you make of the goings-on across the street?"
"Don't know. They're stirred up like a bees' nest, though."
It didn't die down, either. As the afternoon wore on, more and more Easterners, and a few Teckla, would go into Kelly's flat for a while and come out, often carrying stacks of paper. I noticed one group of about six emerging with black headbands that they hadn't been wearing when they went in. A bit later another group went in, and they also wore the headbands when they came out. Cawti, as well as the others I knew, were popping in and out every hour or so. Once when she emerged she had on one of the headbands, too. I could only see it across her forehead because it matched her hair so well, but I thought it looked pretty good.
It was getting on toward evening when I noticed that one group loitering around the place had sticks. I looked closer and saw that one of them had a knife. I licked my lips, reminded myself to stay alert for my man, and kept watching.
I still didn't know what was going on, but I wasn't surprised, as another hour or so came and went, to see more and more groups of Easterners carrying sticks, knives, cleavers, and even an occasional sword or spear.
Something, it seemed, was Happening.
My feelings were mixed. In an odd way I was pleased. I had had no idea that these people could get together anything on the kind of scale—there were now maybe a hundred or so armed Easterners hanging around the street—that they were managing. I took a sort of vicarious pride in it. But I also knew that, if this continued, they would attract the kind of attention that could get them all hurt. My palms were sweaty, and it wasn't just from worrying about the assassin I assumed must be nearby.
In fact, I realized, I could almost relax about him. If he were the gutsy type, now would be a perfect time to get me. But if he'd been the gutsy type, he would have moved yesterday or the day before. I had the feeling he was more my kind. I wouldn't have gone near a situation like this. I like to stick to a plan, and a hundred armed, angry Easterners were unlikely to have been part of this guy's plan.
The street continued to fill up. In fact
, it was becoming out and out crowded. Easterners with weapons were walking directly in front of me. It was all I could do to remain unnoticed; part of the street and not really there. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what they were doing other than milling around, but they all seemed to think it important. I considered leaving, since I was pretty certain that the presumed assassin would have left long ago.
About then the door to Kelly's place opened and Kelly came out flanked by Paresh and Cawti, with a couple of Easterners I didn't recognize in front of him. I don't know what that guy has, but I couldn't believe how quiet everything got. All of a sudden the entire street was silent. It was eerie. Everybody gathered around Kelly and waited, and they must have been practically holding their breaths to make so little noise.
He didn't get up on any kind of platform or anything, and he was pretty short, so he was completely hidden from me. I only gradually became aware that he was speaking, as if he'd started in a whisper and was talking louder and louder as he went. Since I couldn't hear him, I tried to judge the reaction he was getting. It was hard to tell, but it was quite certain that everyone was listening.
As his voice rose, I began to catch occasional phrases, then larger portions of his speech as he shouted it. "They are asking us," he declaimed, "to pay for their excesses, and we are saying we won't do it. They have forfeited any rights they may once have had to rule our destinies. We have now the right—and the obligation—to rule our own." Then his voice suddenly dropped again, but a little later it rose once more. "You, gathered here now, are only the vanguard, and this battle is only the first." And, still later, "We are not blind to their strengths, as they are blind to ours, but we're not blind to their weaknesses, either."
There was more like that, but I was too far away to get a good idea of what was going on. Still, they were waving weapons in the air, and I saw that the street was even more full than it had been when he'd started speaking. Those in back could no more hear than I could, but they pressed forward, eagerly. The atmosphere was almost carnival like, especially far back in the crowd. They would hold up their sticks or knives or kitchen cleavers and wave them about, yelling. They would clasp each other's shoulders, or hug each other, and I saw an Easterner nearly cut the throat of a Teckla he was trying to hug.
They had no understanding of or respect for their weapons. I decided I was scared and had better leave. I stepped out of my corner and headed home. I made it with no trouble.
When Cawti arrived, close to midnight, her eyes were glowing. More than her eyes, in fact. It was as if there were a light shining inside of her head, and some of the luminescence was corning out of the pores of her skin. She had a smile on her face, and her smallest movements, as she took off her cloak and got a wine glass from the buffet, had an enthusiasm and verve that couldn't be missed. She was still wearing the black headband.
She had looked at me that way, once upon a time.
She poured herself a glass of wine and came into the living room, sat down.
"What is it?" I asked her.
"We're finally doing something," she said. "We're moving. This is the most exciting thing I can remember."
I kept my reaction off my face as best I could. "And what is this thing?"
She smiled and the light from the candles made her eyes dance. "We're shutting it down."
"Shutting what down?"
"The entire Easterners' quarter—all of South Adrilankha."
I blinked. "What do you mean, shutting it down?"
"No traffic into or out of South Adrilankha. All the merchants and peasants who pass through from the west will have to go around. There are barricades being set up all along Carpenter and Twovine. They'll be manned in the morning."
I struggled with that for a moment. Finally, "What will that do?" won out over "How are you doing it?"
She said, "Do you mean short-term, or what are we trying to achieve?"
"Both," I said. I struggled with how to put the question, then came up with, "Aren't you trying to get the peasants on your side? It sound like this will just make them mad if they have to travel all the way around South Adrilankha."
"First of all, most of them won't want to go around, so they'll sell to Easterners or go back."
"And that will get them on your side?"
She said, "They were born on our side." I had some trouble with that, but I let her continue. "It isn't as if we're trying to recruit them, or convince them to join something, or show what great people we are. We're fighting a war."
"And you don't care about civilian casualties?"
"Oh, stop it. Of course we do."
"Then why are you taking food out of the mouths of these peasants who are just trying to—"
"You're twisting things. Look, Vlad, it's time we struck back. We have to. We can't let them think they can cut us down with impunity, and the only defense we have is to bring together the masses in their own defense. And yes, some will be hurt. But the big merchants—the Orcas and the Tsalmoth and the Jhegaala—will run out of meat for their slaughterhouses. They'll be hurt more. And the nobility, who are used to eating meat once or twice every, day, will be very unhappy about it after a while."
"If they're really hurt, they'll just ask the Empire to move in."
"Let them ask. And let the Empire try. We have the entire quarter, and that's only the beginning. There aren't enough Dragons in the Guard to reopen it."
"Why can't they just teleport past your barricades?"
"They can. Let them. Watch what happens when they try."
"What will happen? The Phoenix Guard are trained warriors, and one of them can—"
"Do nothing when he's outnumbered ten or twenty or thirty to one. We have all of South Adrilankha already, and that's only the beginning. We are finding support in the rest of the city and among the larger estates surrounding it. That, in fact, is what I'm going to be working on starting tomorrow. I'm going to visit some of those slaughterhouses and—"
"I see. All right, then: why?"
"Our demands to the Empress—"
"Demands? To the Empress? Are you serious?"
"Yes."
"Uh… all right. What are they?"
"We have asked for a full investigation into the murders of Sheryl and Franz."
I stared at her. I swallowed, then stared some more. Finally I said, "You can't mean it."
"Of course we mean it."
"You went to the Empire?"
"Yes."
"Do you mean to tell me that, not only have you gone to the Empire over a Jhereg killing, but you are now demanding that it be investigated?"
"That's right."
"That's crazy! Cawti, I can see Kelly or Gregory coming up with a notion like that, but you know how we operate."
"We?"
"Cut it out. You were in the organization for years. You know what happens when someone goes to the Empire. Herth will kill every one of you."
"Every one of us? Each of the thousands of Easterners—and Dragaerans—in South Adrilankha?"
I shook my head. She knew better. She had to know better. You never, never, never talk to the Empire. That is one of the few things that can make a Jhereg mad enough to hire someone to use a Morganti blade. Cawti knew that. And yet here she was, positively glowing about how they had just put all of their heads on the executioner's block.
"Cawti, don't you realize what you're doing?"
She looked at me hard. "Yes. I realize exactly what we're doing. I don't think you do. You seem to think Herth is some sort of god. He isn't. He certainly isn't strong enough to defeat an entire city."
"But—"
"And that isn't the point, anyway. We aren't counting on the Empire to give us justice. We know better, and so does everyone who lives in South Adrilankha. The thousands who are following us in this aren't doing it because they love us, but because of their need. There will be a revolution because they need it bad enough to die for it. They follow us because we know that, and because we don't l
ie to them. This is only the first battle, but it's starting, and we're winning. That's what's important—not Herth."
I stared at her. At last I said, "How long did it take you to memorize that?"
Fires burned behind her eyes and I was struck by a wave of anger and I badly wished I'd kept my mouth shut.
I said, "Cawti—"
She stood up, put on her cloak and walked out.
If Loiosh had said anything I'd probably have killed him.
Chapter 9
…and polish.
I stayed up all night, walking around the neighborhood. I wasn't completely nuts, the way I'd been before, but I suppose I wasn't quite rational, either. I did try to be careful and I wasn't attacked. Morrolan reached me psionically at some point in there, but claimed it wasn't important when I asked why, so I didn't find out what he wanted. After a few hours I had calmed down a bit. I thought about going home, but realized that I didn't want to go home to an empty house. Then I realized that I didn't want to go home to find Cawti waiting up for me, either.
I sat down in an all—night klava hole and drank klava until my kidneys cried for mercy. When daylight began to filter down through the orange-red haze that Dragaerans think is a sky, I still wasn't feeling sleepy. I ate a couple of hen's eggs at a place I didn't know, then wandered over to the office. That earned me a raised eyebrow from Melestav.
I sniffed around the place and made sure that everything was running smoothly. It was. Once, some time ago, I'd left the office in Kragar's hands for a few days and he'd made an organizational disaster of the place, but he seemed to have learned since then. There were a couple of notes indicating people wanted to see me about business-type things, but they weren't urgent so I decided to let them sit. Then I reconsidered and gave them to Melestav with instructions to have Kragar check into them a little more. When someone wants to see you—and someone is after your head—it might be a set up. Just to satisfy your curiosity, they were both legitimate.