Jhereg (26 page)

"The hard part."

"What--?"

"Wait a minute."

I stood up and went over to the window. I made an automatic glance down at the street below, then opened the window.

"
Loiosh, see if you can find Daymar. If you do, ask him if he would mind putting in an
appearance here.
"

For once, Loiosh didn't make any remarks as he left.

"Okay, Vlad, so what is it?"

"Get a message out that I would very badly like to see Kiera. Then draw off a thousand gold from the treasury, and bring it up here."

"What--?"

"Just do it, okay? I'll explain everything later, after everyone is here."

" 'Everyone?' How many should I figure on?"

"Uh, let me see... five. No, six."

"Six? Should I rent a convention hall?"

"Scram."

I settled back to wait and went over the plan again. The rough spot, as I saw it, was whether or not Kiera could pull off the switch. Of course, if anyone could, she could, but it was going to be difficult even for her, I suspected.

There was, to be sure, an even rougher spot, but I tried to avoid thinking about that. Alarms. "Bing bing," and "Clang," and everything else, both psionic and audible, went off all over the place. I hit the floor rolling and had a dagger ready to throw as my receptionist came bursting in, sword in one hand, dagger in the other. Then I realized what had happened--I saw Daymar floating cross-legged, about three feet off the floor. I was rather pleased that before he had time to uncross his legs and stand up (or stand down, as the case may be), there were a total of four of my people in the office, weapons drawn and ready.

I stood up, resheathed my dagger, and held my hand up.

"False alarm," I explained, "but good job."

Daymar was looking around him with an expression of mild interest on his face. My receptionist was looking unhappy about putting his weapons away. "He broke right through our teleport blocks like they weren't even there! He--"

"I know. But it's all right, never mind."

They stood for a moment, then shrugged and left, casting glances at Daymar, who was now looking bewildered.

"Did you have teleport blocks up?" he said. "I didn't notice any."

"I should have thought to have them turned off. It doesn't matter. Thanks for showing up."

"No problem. What do you need?"

"More help, old friend. Sit down, if you wish." I set an example by picking up my chair and sitting myself down in it. "How are you at illusions?" He considered this. "Casting them, or breaking them?"

"Casting them. Can you do a good one, quickly?"

"By 'quickly,' I assume you mean fast enough so that no one sees the intermediate stages. Is that right?"

"That, and with little or no warmup time. How are you at it?" He shrugged. "How is Kiera at stealing?"

"Funny you should bring that up. She should be here--soon, if I'm lucky."

"Oh, really? What's going on, if you don't mind my asking?"

"Hmmm. If it's all right with you, I'd like to wait on the explanations until everyone shows up."

"Oh. Well, that's fine with me. I'll just meditate for a while." And, lifting his legs off the floor, he closed his eyes and began to do so.

At that moment, I heard Loiosh tapping on the window. I opened it. He flew in and landed on my right shoulder. He looked at Daymar, hissed a hiss of puzzlement, and looked away.

I reached out for contact with my wife, found her. "
Honey, could you come over to the
office?
"

"
Certainly. I don't suppose you have work for me, do you?
"

"
Not exactly, but the next thing to it.
"

"
Vlad! You've got something!
"

"
Yep.
"

"
What is--? No, I suppose you want to wait 'til I'm there, right? I'll be right over.
" I repeated the process with Aliera, who agreed to teleport in. This time, however, I remembered to drop the protection spells before she arrived.

She looked around. "So this is your office. It looks quite functional."

"Thank you. It's small, but it suits my humble life-style."

"I see."

She noticed Daymar, then, who was still floating some three or four feet off the floor. She rolled her eyes in a gesture that was remarkably like Cawti's. Daymar opened his eyes and stood up.

"Hello, Aliera," he said.

"Hello, Daymar. Mind-probed any teckla, lately?"

"No," he answered with a straight face, "did you have one that you wanted mind-probed?"

"Not at the moment," she said. "Ask me again next Cycle."

"I'll be sure to."

He probably would, too, I reflected, if they were both still around then. Cawti arrived at that moment, in time to avoid any further clashes between Hawk and Dragon. She greeted Aliera warmly. Aliera gave her a cheery smile, and they went off into a corner to gossip. The two of them had become close friends in recent months, based in part on a mutual friendship with Lady Norathar. Norathar was a Dragon turned Jhereg turned Dragon, who had been Cawti's partner, if you recall. Aliera had been instrumental in returning to Norathar her rightful place as a Dragonlord. Well, so had I, but never mind. That's another story.

It occurred to me, then, that Norathar was another one who would be somewhat caught in the middle by this whole thing. Her two best friends were going to have to try to kill each other, and she had loyalties on both sides. I put it out of my mind. We were here to prevent her from having to make that choice.

Kiera entered shortly, followed by Kragar. He handed me a large purse, which I immediately turned over to Kiera.

"Still another job, Vlad? I ought to teach you the craft. You could save a lot of time and money if you could do it on your own."

"Kiera," I said, "there aren't enough hours in the day for me to learn your art. Besides, my grandfather doesn't approve of stealing. Are you willing to help me out in this? It's in a good cause."

She absently weighed the purse, no doubt able to tell within-a few Imperials how much was in it. "It is?" she said. "Oh, well. I guess I'll help you out anyway." She smiled her little smile and looked at the others in the room.

"Oh, yes," I said. "Kiera, this is Aliera e'Kieron--"

"We know each other," interrupted Aliera.

They smiled at each other, and I was surprised to note that the smiles seemed genuine. For a while I'd been afraid that Kiera had once stolen something of Aliera's. Friendships do turn up in the oddest places.

"Okay," I said, "let's get down to business. I think everyone knows everyone, right?" There was no disagreement.

"Good. Let's get comfortable."

Kragar had, without my mentioning it, made sure that there were six chairs in the room, and had sent out for a good wine and six glasses. These arrived, and he went around the room making sure everyone's was full, before sitting down himself. Daymar disdained the chair, preferring to float. Loiosh assumed his position on my right shoulder.

I began to feel a little nervous about the whole thing. I had gathered in that room a master thief, a high noble of the House of the Hawk, a Dragonlord who traced her lineage back to Kieron himself, and a highly skilled assassin. And Kragar. I was just a bit troubled. Who was I to use these people as if they were common Jhereg to be hired and sent out?

I caught Aliera's eye. She'was looking at me steadily and confidently. Cawti, also, was waiting patiently for me to describe how we were going to get out of this. That's who I was, of course. Cawti's husband, Aliera's friend, and more... and the one who knew, possibly, how to handle this situation.

I cleared my throat, took a sip of wine, and organized my thoughts. "My friends," I said,

"I would like to thank each of you for coming here, and agreeing to help me out on this. With some of you, it is, of course, in your own best interest, for one reason or another, that this matter be favorably settled. And to you, I would like to add that I am honored that you are trusting me to handle it. To those of you with no direct interest, I am deeply grateful that you are willing to help me at all. I give you my assurance that I won't forget this."

"
Get to the point.
"

"
Shut up, Loiosh.
"

"As to the problem, well, most of you know what it is, to one degree or another. Put simply, a high noble in the Jhereg is under the protection of Lord Morrolan, and it is necessary that he be killed, and not later than tomorrow at that, or," I paused for another sip of wine and for effect, "or events will occur to the severe detriment of some of us."

Aliera snorted at the understatement. Kiera chuckled.

"The important thing to remember is the time limit. For reasons that I would prefer not to go into, we have only today and tomorrow. Today would be much better, but I'm afraid that we're going to have to take today to iron out difficulties, and to practice our parts."

"Now, it is important to some of us," I looked quickly at Aliera, but her face betrayed no emotion, "that nothing be done which would compromise Morrolan's reputation as a host. That is, we can't do anything to this person, Mellar, while he is a guest at Castle Black, nor can we force him to leave by threats or by magic, such as mind-control." I looked around the room. I still had everyone's attention. "I think I've found a method. Allow me to demonstrate what I have in mind, first, so we can get the hard part down before I go on with the rest of it. Kragar, stand up for a moment, please." He did so. I came around the desk and drew my rapier. His eyebrows arched, but he said nothing.

"Assume for a moment," I said, "that you have weapons secreted about your person at every conceivable point."

He smiled a little. Assume, hell!

"Draw your blade," I continued, "and get into a guard position." He did so, standing full forward, with his blade pointed straight at my eyes, level with his own head. His blade was a lot heavier and somewhat longer than mine, and it formed a straight line from his eyes to mine. His palm was down, his elbow out. There was a certain grace apparent, although I still consider the Eastern
en garde
position to be more elegant.

I stood for a moment, then attacked, simulating the Dragaeran move for a straight head cut. I came at his head, just below the line of his blade, giving me a sharp angle up. He made the obvious parry, dropping his elbow so that his sword also angled up, even more sharply than mine. Also, the strong of his blade was matched against the weak of mine. This lined him up very well for a cut down at my head; however, before he could take it, I moved in and...

I felt something strike my stomach, lightly. I looked down, and saw his left hand there. Had this been a real fight, there would have been a dagger clutched in that hand. Had we been alone, he would probably have used a real dagger and avoided hitting me with it, but he wasn't keen on letting all of these people in on where he kept his extra blades. I resumed a normal position, saluted him, and sheathed my blade.

"Where," I asked, "did you get the dagger from?"

"Left forearm sheath," he said, with no hesitation.

"Good. Is there anywhere else you could have gotten it from that would have worked as well?"

He looked thoughtful for a moment, then he said, "I was assuming a spring-loaded type of forearm sheath, set for left-hand use. If he has it set for a right-hand draw, which is just as common, then I'd expect a simple waist sheath would be the one he'd go for. Either way it would be fast. I can use the fact that the whole left side of your body is undefended, and I can attack with the same motion I draw with. An upper thigh sheath would mean dropping my arm lower than I have to, there isn't any reason to go cross-body, and anything else is worse."

I nodded. "Okay. Cawti, anything to add, or do you agree?" She thought for a moment, then shook her head. "No, he's right. It would be one of those two."

"Good. Kragar, I want you to secure two Morganti daggers." He looked surprised for a moment, then shrugged.

"Okay. How strong do you want them?"

"Strong enough for anyone to tell that they are Morganti, but not so strong that they are apparent when they're sitting in their sheaths; okay?"

"Okay, I can find a couple like that. And, let me guess, you want one to be the right size for a waist sheath, and the other to be the right size for a forearm sheath."

"You've got it. Let me see for a minute. ..." I had looked very closely for the weapons Mellar was carrying, but I hadn't been so much concerned with how big they were as where they were. I tried to remember.... Where was that little bulge? Ah, yes. And when he had turned from talking to the Hawklord, I had seen how much hilt from the waist sheath? Right. It looked like a standard bone hilt. How long a blade would make it balance right? And how wide? I'd have to guess, but I felt I could come pretty close.

"Waist sheath," I announced. "Overall length, approximately fourteen inches, of which half is blade. Just a fraction over an inch wide at the widest. Forearm sheath: call it nine inches overall. The blade is about five-and-a-half inches long, and about three-quarters of an inch wide near the guard." I stopped. "Any problem?" He looked uncomfortable. "I don't know, Vlad. I should be able to get them, but I can't count on it. I'll talk to my supplier, and see what he has, but you're being damn precise."

"I know. Do the best you can. Remember, they don't have to be untraceable this time."

"That will help."

"Good."

I turned to Kiera. "Now, the big question. Can you lighten Mellar of a pair of daggers without his noticing, and, more of a problem, without his bodyguard noticing? I'm referring, of course, to the waist and forearm daggers."

She just smiled in answer.

"Okay, now; can you return them again? Can you put them back without his noticing?" Her brows came together. " 'Return them?' I don't know ... I think so ... maybe. I take it you mean substituting two new ones for the ones he has, right?" I nodded.

"And," I added, "remember that they're going to be Morganti daggers, so they have to stay unnoticeable during the switch."