I didn’t recognize the secretary; he seemed rather small, friendly, ingenuous, and was probably very dangerous. He asked if he might be of some service to me.
“Is Kragar around? That is, assuming you’d notice.”
He smiled as if it were a shared joke, just between us. “I’m afraid he’s stepped out. If you’d care to wait?” He gestured to a chair.
“Sure,” I said.
I sat down and stretched out, memories of this old place flooding back. Funny, I’d never noticed the smell before: a mix from the herbalist shop across the street, the baker down the way, and the musky smell of ancient furniture. Kragar should get around to getting new furniture one of these days. It was comfortable, though.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
He looked up, and smiled. “Yenth,” he said, or something like that.
“A pleasure,” I told him. “I’m Vlad.”
“Yes, I know,” he said pleasantly. “The jhereg on your shoulders were kind of a clue.”
“You could make a lot of money by letting certain persons know I’m here.”
He nodded, still looking friendly. “I know that, too. But the boss might not be so happy with me.”
“He might not,” I agreed.
It was very strange hearing Kragar referred to as “the boss.”
“Is it all right if I wait in his office?”
He frowned. “Mind if I ask why?”
I gave him an honest answer.
“Ah,” he said, laughing. “I can see that. Will you make it good for me with the boss, if needed?”
“Yeah, I think I can do that. Want some money to make it official that you were bribed?”
He chuckled. “No, thanks. That might lead to questions I wouldn’t care to answer.”
“Fair enough,” I said, and moved into what once had been my office, with my desk, a new chair where mine had once been, and the same ugly view from my window. Sometimes I’d had that window boarded up, other times I kept it open so Loiosh could use it. I took another chair and shoved it into a corner next to the coat rack and waited, thinking invisible thoughts.
The door opened, he came in and sat behind the desk, opened a drawer, and pulled out a ledger. “Hey there,” I said, and I swear he almost screamed.
He settled down and stared at me. “Vlad!”
“Hey, Kragar. You know, I’ve been wanting to do that to you for more years than I can remember. If the Jhereg gets me now, my last thought will be of the pleasure I’ve just had.” I smiled.
“I think I’ll kill you before the Jhereg gets to it. How did you get past Yenth?”
“I bribed him.”
“How much did it take?”
“No cash, he just wanted in on the vicarious pleasure of seeing you jump.”
“I’ll kill you both.”
“Don’t blame you.”
“But first I’m going let my heart rate slow down to something below the imminent death level.”
“When that happens, you can maybe tell me a few things.”
“Maybe. I’ll think about it. What do you want to know?”
“What’s up with Aliera?”
“She’s been arrested.”
“I know that. Why?”
“Practicing pre-Empire sorcery.”
“I know that,” I said. “Why?”
“Because the Empress needs to distract attention from the mess in Tirma.”
“And there was no other way to do that than arrest a friend of hers?”
“How should I know? The Empress hasn’t been taking me into her confidence lately.”
“How about the Jhereg?”
“Hmmm?”
“Do you know how they plan to get me?”
“You don’t know?”
“Well, I’ve had the thought that this whole thing with Aliera was concocted just to get me back here, but that seems a bit paranoid even for me.”
“Yeah, that may be going over the edge.”
“For one thing, how do they get the Empress to cooperate?”
“Right.”
“Unless—”
“Hmmm?”
“Kragar, have you heard any whispers or rumors of something big being up with the Jhereg in combination with another House, or more than one?”
He looked at me. I said, “That look tells me that the answer is yes.”
“How did you—?”
“What is it?”
“I asked first. How did you know?”
“I didn’t know. In fact, I assumed I was wrong. But if this is all a means of getting me back here, then the key element is to convince the Empress to do what they want.”
“Okay, I can see that.”
“The Jhereg is at the bottom of the Cycle. They aren’t in any position to influence the Imperium, unless—”
“—they work with another House, maybe even two or three.”
“Right. Which means they have to have something to offer, which means—”
“Something big. Got it. I keep forgetting how devious you are.”
“Me? I’m not the one who came up with it, whatever it is. Which reminds me, what is it?”
“Now that I can answer,” said Kragar, “I have no idea.”
Iorich
8
Yes, certainly I’m willing to cooperate with your committee, but I have no idea what you imagine I can tell you. As you know, I had no position in the Imperial army at the time of incident, and no knowledge of it beyond rumor and what I was told by friends, none of whom were directly involved either. If your question concerns military matters in general, certainly I will give you my opinions, but it would seem there are others more qualified. In general, such “testimony” as you want from me I can give right now: If you put soldiers in a position where the enemy is the populace, you must expect them to treat the populace as the enemy. This does not require knowledge of the higher reaches of the sorcerous arts to devine.
Nevertheless, as I said, I am willing to speak to your committee at any time that my duties do not require my presence elsewhere. A message sent to me through the House of the Dragon will reach me quickly, and a message sent to the Office of the Warlord, Dragon Wing, Imperial Palace, will reach me instantly.
—Norathar (authenticated)
“What did you hear, and where did you hear it?”
“I didn’t exactly hear anything, but there have been a few Orca—”
“Orca!”
“—who have been exceptionally polite of late.”
“Um.”
“It bugged me enough that I set someone to find out what was up, and all I learned was that there are orders from some of their House not to offend us.” Given how easily the Orca offend everyone, and how habitual it seems with them to do so, that certainly was significant—of something.
“Um,” I said again.
“Maybe you think that’s normal—”
“Heh. Yeah, okay. Something is up.”
“I’m still not sure of your conclusion, though.”
“You mean, that it’s all directed at me?”
“Right. Something that big—”
“I know. I may be a part of it, or maybe they just took the opportunity. But I’m going to follow up my guess that somewhere between the Jhereg and the Orca, and maybe another House too, someone is putting pressure on the Empress.”
“If we could find out who, or how—”
“Kiera is working on that for me.”
An eyebrow went up, then he nodded. He kept looking at me.
I said, “What is it?”
“What’s what?”
“That look you’re giving me.”