13

LEFITT: Can't anyone tell me anything?

     [Enter Tadmar]

TADMAR: I can.

LEFITT: Thank all the gods! Well then, please do!

TADMAR: There's a merchant at the door.

LEFITT (aside): I asked for that, didn't I?

—Miersen, Six Parts Water
Day One, Act IV, Scene 3

The guards hesitated—I guess my voice was a little stronger—and looked at the Count. He frowned. Dahni tried not to look uncomfortable.

"Where is he?" I said.

"And of whom might you be speaking?" Dahni asked.

I shook my head wearily. "I'm too tired for this, and there's no time. Unless you want His Lordship hunting you down wherever you go—and me, if I happen to live through it—just answer the bloody question. The Jhereg. The elf. The assassin. The Dragaeran. The man you've been paid to deliver me to. Where is he? Oh, and don't try to pretend to be carefree and calm unless you can pull it off, it just leaves you looking ridiculous."

He looked at His Lordship, who, to his credit, had picked up my play immediately and put on a stone face.

Dahni sighed. "Yes, well. If I tell you, do I get out of this alive?" He was looking at His Lordship.

"As far as I'm concerned," he said. "I can't speak for him."

I said, "Not much I could do to you if I wanted to right now."

He glanced significantly at Loiosh and Rocza.

"Oh," I said. "Yeah, we'll leave you alone."

"We're not really letting him go, Boss, are we?"

"I haven't decided yet."

He nodded. "About two miles northeast of town by the Lumber Camp Trail there is a row of old shacks. Right behind the third one is a trail that leads over a hill. At the bottom of the hill is a sort of office area the camp leader used to use. He's in there."

"I know it," said the Count.

Dahni nodded, and looked like he was about to leave.

"Not quite yet," I said. "Did he give you a name?"

"Mahket." He stumbled a little saying the name, I guess because the stress was on the last syllable, and Fenarian never does that.

I laughed a little. "Mahket" means "peace-lover." He had a sense of humor, did this assassin. And no more desire to give his real name than I would have had. "When did he first make contact with you?"

"It would have been, ah, two weeks ago."

I made the adjustment from the Eastern "week" to the Dragaeran, and nodded. "How did he find you?"

"I don't know. It was after His Lordship gave me the assignment to follow you. Perhaps a servant?"

"Probably. Finding the local lord and pumping one of his servants for information would have been a natural first step."

The Count said, "I will discover who it was."

"If you wish," I said. "I don't think it matters much. If you paid your servants enough so they weren't susceptible to bribes, they'd no longer be servants." I turned back to Dahni. "When does he expect to hear from you again?"

"Today, an hour before dusk."

"And?"

He winced.

"Relax," I said. "You've been given your life, and it's much too late for any of us to start liking you. Now let's hear it."

He nodded. "I'm to deliver a layout of the manor, precisely where you are within it, the position of the guards, and how closely you are guarded."

"And then?"

"When he returns, I am to be paid. If he really plans to pay me, of course, and not to either just leave, or kill me."

"Don't worry," I said. "He'll carry out his bargain. Or, well, he would."

"You know him?"

"I know his kind. I presume you were paid something up front?"

He nodded.

"Then not only do you get to live, but, ah, one moment."

"Loiosh, how much gold am I carrying with me?"

"I don't know, Boss. A lot. Five pounds or so?"

I said, "You can also pick up ten gold coins of the Empire. Pure gold. Interested?"

"Ten coins," he said. "Each coin is, ah, what?"

"An ounce," I said. "A seventeenth of an Imperial pound."

"That's what you call an ounce?"

"Yes."

"That's strange."

"It's an Imperial measure. What do you call an ounce?"

"A sixteenth of a standard pound."

"And that isn't strange?"

"Good point."

"Well?"

"What do I have to do?"

"Dissemble."

"I think I see where this is going."

"I suspect you do. Well?"

He thought it over, but I knew which way it would go—I could see the greed dancing in his eyes. I knew that look well; I'd made my living on it, directly or indirectly, for many years.

"All right," he said.

"Good. Give him the information, just as agreed. Only leave out this conversation, and anything else that might give him the idea he's expected. As far as he's concerned, everything's fine. Understand?"

He nodded.

"Tell him things get quiet here about four hours after sunset."

He nodded again.

"Do you think you can pull it off?"

"Dissembling? What do you think?"

"Good point. Look at me, Dahni."

"I am looking at you."

"No, look at what's been done to me." My voice sounded hoarse to my ears.

He swallowed and nodded.

"Keep it in mind, Dahni. Because I don't trust you. And if you turn on me, I'm going to have you delivered to me, and this is what I'm going to do to you."

I looked at His Lordship, who looked back at me, hesitated, then nodded once.

"I understand," said Dahni.

"Good. Go keep your appointment. You'll be paid when—when matters have been attended to."

"Aren't you going to ask how much I was to be paid for delivering you?"

"I never indulge in morbid curiosity," I lied.

After he'd gone, and before I could make the suggestion, His Lordship turned to one of the guards and said, "Do we have anyone who can follow him without making it obvious?"

"Yes, my lord."

"Then do so."

He dismissed the other guard as well, and we were alone.

"Well?" he said. "Now what?"

Now I wanted to sleep.

"Send a troop. Good men, who can move in close before doing anything. Don't give him time to get a spell off, assuming he can—"

"Just kill him? With no warning, no capture, no trial, on your say-so alone?"

"Yes," I said, and waited.

I figured I didn't need to draw it out for him, and I didn't; he finally nodded. "All right."

"Find a witch and tell him you need Nesiffa powder. A lot of it. A sackful."

"What is it?"

"It's the base of an infusion for curing migraines, but that isn't what you want it for. It's a powder, but each grain will stick to skin or cloth. You have everyone in the attack group carry some in his left hand, and throw it at the guy first thing."

"Because?"

"He won't teleport; that takes too long. When he realizes he's being attacked—which ought to be no more than a second before the attack starts or we're out of luck—the first thing he's likely to try is to disappear, if he can. And he probably can; it's a simple enough spell. Covered with that stuff, your men can still see him. It's an old trick, but a good one."

"All right. What was it called?"

"Nesiffa powder. Find good people, who can stay quiet. I mean, dead quiet. Hide outside of the cabin and wait for him to come out, and then just take him. No warning, or you'll lose him."

He nodded. He didn't like it. Me, the only part I didn't like was the chance for a screw-up.

"You'll find a money belt in the box they brought in with me. Take—"

"No," he said. "I'll see that he's paid."

"All right," I said.

Once His Lordship was clear on everything, he wished me well and let himself out. The witches came in right away and changed my poultices and made me drink more disgusting messes; then the physicker's assistant, whom I hadn't seen before, came in and muttered various well-meant meaningless sounds and changed my dressings, after which I was finally left alone.

I was exhausted.

"If this works, we'll be—"

"In the same situation we're in now, Boss. The Jhereg knows where you are."

"We'll have bought some time."

"A day? Two days? A week?"

"They'll still have the same problem, Loiosh. I'll have to be moved back into town is all." I tried not to think of another ride in the back of a wagon. "One thing at a time, right, chum?"

"Right, Boss." He didn't seem happy.

As far as I could tell, Rocza was fine. I asked Loiosh and he agreed. "I think she was just trying to get my sympathy, Boss."

Sometimes, it's best for Loiosh that Rocza can't hear what he's telling me.

The next thing I did was sleep.

I think I slept three or four hours, which was the longest uninterrupted sleep I could remember in a long time. The witches had returned, and they consulted each other in low voices while mixing things at the opposite end of the room so I couldn't see. I guess they didn't value my opinions. They came back and made me drink things, and put wet things on me. I had to admit, the wet things felt pretty good. Then I guess I slept some more.

I awoke to Loiosh's voice in my head, saying, "Boss, they're back."

"Who? What?"

I opened my eyes as His Lordship came into the room, flanked by a pair of guards, one looking bright and shiny, the other dusty and dirty and, yes indeed, bloodstained.

I looked my question at the Count.

"They did it," he said. "He's dead."

I felt a tension drain out of me, and I nodded.

He gestured to the bloodstained guard. "Show him."

The guard came forward and for a second I thought he was going to show me the guy's head, but the bundle in his hand was too small and the wrong shape. He unwrapped it and showed it to me. A dagger, about nine inches of blade, almost all point. Just the sort of thing I'd have picked. The metal was grayish black and didn't reflect the light. I couldn't feel it, but I shuddered anyway.

"What is it?" asked the old man, harshly.

"A special sort of weapon. It is—" I broke off. I didn't want to say "evil" because it sounded silly. But no other word quite described that thing. "It is something you should keep. Set it aside, put it in your vault, make—"

"I don't have a vault," he said too quickly.

"—it an heirloom. Never use it. You probably don't even want to touch it."

The guard looked even more nervous than he had before. Saekeresh nodded to him and said, "Set it over there, I'll see to it later." Then he turned back to me. "So, is it over, then?"

"Over?" I said. "Not even close. But if you get me out of your house, and into town, it should be over for you. In any case, we can hope we have some time."

"There won't be more of these, whatever they are, after you?"

"There will, but they won't have come together. At least, most likely. They generally work alone."

"But, these others, they'll know where you are?"

"I imagine whoever sent Mahket will know."

"So, then, when he doesn't report back—"

"Yes."

He rubbed the back of his hand over his mouth again. "You'll be safe in the inn?"

"I'll be safer somewhere that isn't here. And, yes, if he has to come into town to get me, he'll be more likely to be noticed. In particular, because he'll have one of those with him." I gestured toward the counter. "There are enough witches in town that it'll be noticed. And why is that, anyway? The place is lousy with witches. Can't cross the street without tripping over one. Is this whole country like that?"

His mouth worked. "Actually, we have fewer here than in many places."

Which reminded me that the number had been reduced by an entire family not long ago. Whatever shape I was in, I was better off than they were. Or Mahket, for that matter.

I said, "Well, can you get word to them?"

"Some of them. A fair number."

"Good. Let them stay alert for an ugly sort of foulness they haven't encountered before. If they relax and let themselves, they can feel it a long way away. It will be a weapon of the same sort that you took from Mahket. When they feel it, another elf is here to kill me."

"What did you do to them?"

"Eh, I made enemies."

He let it go.

Aybrahmis came in with two guards and a servant, and they lifted me up and turned me over and changed the bedding. He asked if I needed to use the chamber pot, and I did, and the less said about that experience the better. The guards politely looked away. When I was back on the bed I was shaking. Then I was fed again, and after that I slept some more. I had dreams and woke up several times. During one of those half-awake, half-asleep times, I noticed Rocza suddenly being very affectionate—rubbing her head against my face, and licking the corner of my mouth—which was a new development. I asked Loiosh about it and he said, "She likes you, Boss," which was oddly warming in my present state. Things between Rocza and me were always odd. I had acquired her, I guess you could say, by magic that shouldn't have worked. I had summoned her the way you summon a familiar, but as an adult. She had taken up with Loiosh, and so stayed with me, but communication between us was vague at best and generally filtered through Loiosh. To discover that she had some affection for me was agreeably disappointing.

The night passed, somehow. I didn't feel noticeably better the next morning, but I suppose Aybrahmis must have thought I was because he let me eat some dry bread in addition to the soup. He looked at what the witches had done for the burns and nodded his approval; then he looked at my hand again while I studied the painting some more. Wherever I end up living, if I ever end up living somewhere (or, in fact, if I end up living), I don't think I will ever have a painting of a waterfall there. And forget that art critic idea, too.

I was left alone at last.

"We need to plan our next move, Boss."

"It's planned. We're going back to the inn. The Mouse."

"After that?"

"I don't know. I need to recover, I guess."

"Boss, you have two choices. One is to take months to recover"—he didn't add "if you ever do"—"and the other is to take that amulet off, which is liable to get you killed fast."

"Maybe there's another choice."

"What?"

"I don't know."

"We need to figure out the safest way for us to be gone from here before—"

"No. I have things left to do in this place."

"Boss, tell me you're just teasing your old buddy."

"No."

I shocked him into a silence that lasted the two or three minutes until they came to move me to the inn. They picked me up, mattress and all, and carried me down the stairs and out to the wagon. My box came with me.

This trip, also at night, wasn't as bad as the other had been; I didn't have to concentrate all of my energy on not screaming. I could look at the stars, and wonder and speculate and pick out imaginary patterns as does anyone else who has seen them.

We stopped just outside of town. I called over one of the guards and asked why. He shrugged and said, "Orders."

I was about to tell Loiosh to find out what was up, but he flew off before I could formulate it; Rocza stood over me, wings spread, chest out, neck arched, opening and closing her mouth the way jhereg do when they want you to remember that they have really sharp fangs. The guards who had remained behind kept giving her nervous glances.

"It's all right, Boss."

"What? What's going on?"

"We should have thought of it ourselves. They're arranging for you to be brought in a back way."

"Oh. Yeah, we should have thought of it ourselves."

We started up again, and they finally had to take me off the mattress to make it up the back stairway of the Mouse, which had been built narrow for no possibly good reason, and if I ever meet whoever designed it I'll break both his legs. It took years to get up those stairs, with one guy holding my legs and another my arms.

When I was finally deposited in a bed—different room, but the bed felt the same—I could only lie there and contemplate the sweet sounds of my moaning. I'll let you in on a secret: I don't sound all that good.

My entourage—the physicker and the witches—arrived within the hour and Aybrahmis made a clicking sound with his tongue as he looked me over. "With these people coming in to see me every day, Loiosh, it isn't going to be much of a secret where I am."

"Being secret wasn't part of the plan, was it?"

"No, but it would have been nice."

"It would have been nice if . . ."

He didn't say it.

"I think," said Aybrahmis, "that you will, for the most part, recover full use of your hand."

"For the most part?"

"There should be no loss of strength or flexibility, I believe."

"All right."

"Are you cold?"

"Yes."

He went out and came back about ten minutes later with another blanket. "I have arranged for meals to be brought up to you. I will need to have someone come in and help you with, ah, other things. The Count will pay for it."

"Good of him," I said dryly.

About half an hour after he and the witch had left (just one this time—the fat one with the long sideburns), someone struck the door. Loiosh, Rocza, and I all jumped, then remembered. "Come in," I said.

The door opened and a light-haired, beardless face appeared, followed by a pair of shoulders that looked like they wouldn't fit through the door. He was big. He wasn't exceptionally tall, just very, very big. It looked like he could have crushed my head in one of his hands. Maybe he could have. He smiled—he was missing a few teeth and the others didn't look so good—and said, "You are Lord Merss? I am Meehayi. His Lordship"—he made a quick gesture here that I didn't catch—"sent me to assist you."

I still had to concentrate on speaking so he could hear me. "I am Merss Vladimir," I told him.

He looked me over and shook his head. "What happened?"

"I fell down the stairs," I said.

He nodded, as if he'd seen the same result from a stair fall many times.

He seemed to be harmless and stupid. If he wasn't here to kill me (there's always that possibility, after all) then chances were I'd get him killed in less than a week. But he'd be useful to have around until then.

Am I getting cynical?

Heh. That fruit's already picked.

"So, you tell me what you need done," he said, "and old Meehayi will do it."

"Old Meehayi" was maybe sixteen. I moaned to myself.

But he was careful when he picked me up. I guess he could be; he could have lifted three of me. I told him what I needed, and he did it without comment or, as far as I could tell, any reaction at all. A bit like the butler, I suppose, only from a different source and in a different way.

When he was done, he ran a thin rope out of my window and, as he explained, into his room next door, where it was attached to a bell. "Just ring if you need anything," he said, grinning his ugly grin. I nodded and shut my eyes.

When he had gone I cried for a long time without making a sound. Loiosh and Rocza remained perfectly still.

I slept for a little, and Meehayi brought soup and bread from downstairs. This was better soup, oily and peppery with some substance, not to mention meat. Aybrahmis probably wouldn't have approved, but it made me feel as if it just might be worth staying alive. I mean, after doing what I meant to do; before I dealt with that, nothing was going to take me down.

You hear about guys messing themselves up because they wanted revenge and didn't care about anything else. Then you hear about guys who will tell you that revenge is "wrong," whatever that means. Well, they can all go "plunk" at the bottom of Deathgate for all of me. I had come into town to learn what I could about my mother's family, and now they were dead, and if I didn't do anything about it then the bastards who did it would just go on doing things that way because it worked so well. And as for getting messed up: well, you do things and there are consequences; I ought to know. I can live with consequences. Besides, how much more messed up could I get?

But that's all justification, and I knew it even as I lay there, more dead than alive, and told it to myself. The real issue was just that the idea of letting them get away with it was unthinkable. I didn't have any more justification than that, and I didn't need any.

I put my mind to planning how I was going to pull it off. If I couldn't do anything else, at least I could lie there and think. You don't come up with a plan by thinking, "What's the best way to do this?" You start with what you know, assembling it in your head (I prefer to talk it over with Loiosh, actually, because I formulate my thoughts better when I say them), and make special note of oddities—things that stick out as not fitting in some way. You get as clear a picture of the situation as you can, and then—usually—openings start presenting themselves. At least, that was how I approached it when I made my living by making others stop living, and I couldn't see a good reason to change it.

Once, many years ago, I had talked about this with a colleague. It was the only time I had ever discussed the methods of assassination with anyone, including Cawti, because, well, there are things you just don't talk about. But this guy and I were both drunk that night, and talked about how we approached it, and it turned out he did things the same way I did. He called it "the process of elimination." I wish I could claim credit for that line. I thought it was funny.

He eventually got to thinking he was too tough to have to pay off his gambling debts and he got shined. I can't remember his name.

On this occasion, I didn't want to go through it with Loiosh yet, so I just ran things over in my head, organizing what I knew and noting things I still needed to learn. The more I thought about it, the more I realized my picture wasn't complete. To be sure, I had the broad outlines; I now knew who was behind the thing, and who had done what and why. But the holes in the picture could be troublesome when I got around to doing something about it.

"Boss, is this when you finally get around to telling me what's been going on?"

"It's all been a big misunderstanding."

"Why do I get the feeling you aren't kidding about that?"

"I'm not."

"Uh, okay, Boss. You talk, I'll listen."

I shook my head and stared at the ceiling, feeling suddenly empty: empty of ambition, empty of anger, empty of energy. Does this always happen when you're seriously hurt, you feel full of desire to make plans one minute, the next minute you just want to soak in self-pity, and the minute after that you don't feel anything? If this pattern was going to continue, it would get very old. I didn't have time for it. I needed to do things.

But not right now.

I slept some, I think.

Later, Meehayi came in and fed me soup.

"What is this?" I asked.

"Soup," he said.

"Hardly. There's nothing in it."

"The physicker had them make this specially for you."

I'd have knocked the bowl into his face if I could have moved.

"Eat it, Boss. Please."

I ate it; every tasteless, disagreeable spoonful of it. Then I shook some more, though I can't say why; I wasn't cold. I slept some, and the next time Meehayi brought soup I was able to feed myself. If I told you how much of a sense of triumph that brought me you'd think I was an idiot, or else just pitiful.

As I was recovering from the exertion, Loiosh said, "How much of this was the assassin, Boss?"

"What do you mean?"

"How much of, of what happened to you was his doing?"

"Oh. You think the invisible hand of the assassin was behind it? No chance. For one thing, it started before he got here. For another, the last thing he wanted was for me to be taken. It put me out of his reach. In fact, it . . ."

I let that thought trail off, and Loiosh didn't pick it up. Yeah, it might have saved my life. Eventually I'd decide if it was a good trade-off. Meanwhile, he was one problem solved, one complication gone. Not that I was in danger of running out of those anytime soon.

"There are things I need to know, Loiosh, and I can't move, so you're going to have to find out for me."

"Sure, Boss. Just give me the list of questions and the people to ask."

"Now isn't the time to be funny."

"Now isn't the time for me to be anywhere but here."

"There are things I need to know."

"How bad do you need to know them if you're dead?"

That conversation consumed a considerable amount of time, and became rather passionate. In the end, however, he agreed to do what I wanted, because the alternative would have been to say that Rocza was incompetent. Sometimes you have to fight dirty.

"Okay," he said grudgingly. "What do you need to know?"

"Do you think you could follow Orbahn without him seeing you?"

"Don't make me laugh. The question is, can I see Orbahn without finding out how far into him I can sink my fangs."

"Um. Well, can you?"

"Maybe. What do you need to know?"

"I need him followed."

"Any guess where I can find him?"

"Try the Hat."

"Okay. Now? Or is there more?"

"There will be more eventually."

"Of that, Boss, I have no doubt at all."

"But this will do for now."

"Just one thing before I go flying off on this errand."

"What?"

"How do I get out of here?"

"Huh? Through the . . . oh." I scowled and rang the bell for Meehayi to open the window. It was about time for me to have more of the wonderful soup anyway.