“Morrolan? How does Morrolan enter into this?”
She focused on me, a puzzled look on her face. Then she said, “I keep forgetting how much you don’t know.”
“So. fill me in on some of it?”
“You want a history lesson?”
“No. I don’t. I really, really don’t. I think I’d rather have another beating. But if I need one to understand what’s going on, then I’ll just sit here and take it.”
She made an effort at a smile. “I think we can skip it, for now.”
See? My goddess loves me. “Okay, what do I need to know. That you can tell me.”
She hesitated, then it came out quickly. “When she asked me to be Warlord, she extracted a couple of promises. One I’m breaking now, by talking to you. The other is that Aliera is to escape.”
“Escape,” I repeated.
She nodded.
“I trust Aliera doesn’t know about this?”
“That is correct.”
I sighed. “Well. And the Empress is, you say, a reborn Phoenix?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Just what is that supposed—”
“Sorry. That was out of line. Being stupid doesn’t mean being decadent.”
She said, very precisely, “I do not consider Her Majesty to be stupid.”
“No, I guess she isn’t. In fact, this shows how smart she is.”
“What are you talking about?”
“A stupid person can make only certain, limited types of errors; the mistakes open to a clever fellow are far broader. But to the one who knows how smart he is compared to everyone else, the possibilities for true idiocy are boundless.”
“Vlad—”
“Norathar. Never, ever, will Aliera go along with this. To escape is to admit guilt. Think about it.”
She started to argue, stopped, frowned. I let her work it through. It shouldn’t have taken that long.
“You’re right,” she said.
“Yeah.”
“I have to speak with Her Majesty.”
“Good thinking. Had a whole plan, didn’t you?”
She nodded. I was tempted to smirk, but she might have killed me. Besides, it wasn’t all that funny.
“All right,” I said. “I’ll get out of your way. This clears up a few things, but unfortunately, doesn’t help me. But at least I’m convinced you didn’t order those Dragonlords to attack me.”
“How do you know they were Dragonlords?”
“Huh? Well, for starters, if they were Jhereg they’d have killed me.”
“And if they were Orca?”
I stared at her. She flushed; something I could never have imagined her doing.
“Well done, Boss!”
“Every once in a while, you get a break.”
I let her sit there for a moment and reflect on the difficulty of unsaying something. Then I said, “Don’t feel too bad. I’d been pretty sure of it, anyway.”
She cursed softly under her breath.
“I feel your pain,” I said.
“You will soon,” she said.
“So, feel like filling in the missing piece?”
She glared. “And if I don’t?”
That took me a moment, then I got it and shook my head. “No, no. I’m not going to tell anyone anything about what you did or did not tell me. I’m asking you to fill in the pieces I’m missing. If you don’t, I’ll find out another way; that’s all.”
She bit her lip, then nodded. “What exactly do you want to know?”
“I know the Jhereg and the Orca are working together. On what, exactly? And how are they forcing the Empress to cooperate?”
“All right.” She took a deep breath. “It goes back to before the Interregnum.”
I almost made a remark about how I’d been promised no history, but there are times not to be clever.
“The Jhereg had come up with a big moneymaking scheme that they never got to pull off because the world blew up before they could try it. And maybe for other reasons, too, I don’t know. Anyway, the Left Hand got wind of it a few years ago, started collaborating with the Right Hand and the Orca, and have been trying to put it back.”
“And what is ‘it’?”
“Narcotics, hallucinogens, psychedelics, disassociatives—”
“Norathar, I don’t know most of those words.”
“All right. Opium. Logfungus. Dreamgrass. Laughwort. Koelsh leaf. Poppy extract.”
“What about them?”
“What if they were suddenly illegal?”
“Huh?
“What if—”
“I heard you, I’m just trying to wrap my head around it.”
“What would happen?”
“I don’t know. Um, well, it would drive the prices through the roof.”
“And who would sell it?”
“The Jhereg, of course. Yikes. What a scam! And the Orca?”
“They’d supply it.”
“And the Left Hand?”
“Facilitating deliv—I hadn’t said anything about the Left Hand.”
“It was my own theory. Go on.”
“Facilitating delivery and hiding and selling spells to detect Imperial agents, the way they do now with gambling games.”
“I didn’t know they did that; I never used them.”
“They do. And there is liable to be Iorich involvement too—bribes for mild sentences, and so on.”
“Iorich do that?”
“Funny guy.”
I shook my head. “This is huge. How are they convincing the Empress to go for it?”
“The massacre at Tirma.”
“Huh?”
“Word is about to leak out that it happened because the sergeant was using a combination of koelsh leaves and poppy.”
“Oh. Hmmm. Public outcry?”
The Warlord nodded.
“Is it true? Was he?”
“No.”
“Then why can’t he be made to testify to that?”
“In fact, once this becomes public, that is exactly what will happen.”
“Well, and?”
“And who will believe it? It will be seen by the nobles and the middle classes as a means of distracting attention from the lucrative trade in brain chemicals.”
“How does arresting Aliera help?”
“If Aliera is arrested on an obviously bogus charge, it will add weight to the idea that the massacre in Tirma came from orders on high. It will look like the Empress blames Aliera, but knows she can’t get a conviction on the actual charge, because—”
“Because it must be approved by the Council of Princes, who wouldn’t approve it, so the conviction must be on an Edict, which bypasses peer approval.”
“Well, very good, Vlad. I had no idea you were so well acquainted with the law.”
“I’ve managed to pick up a few pieces here and there,” I said modestly.
“So, now you know, and now I’ve betrayed an oath by telling you.”
“Yeah. And now I know what’s going on, and why, but I’m not sure it helps me.”
“On the contrary,” she said, her eyes narrowing. “It potentially helps you a great deal.”
“How is that?”
“If you reveal what I’ve told you—”
“Oh, come on, Norathar. You know I won’t do that.”
She grunted. “There’s another thing it gets you, then: an ally.”
“You?”
“Yes. Anything I can do without betraying Her Majesty.”
“Hmmm. That may be a bit like, ‘I’ll run any errand you want that doesn’t require me to stand up.’ Still, I appreciate the offer, and I’ll keep it in mind.”
“Do that,” she said.
So there I was: I’d uncovered what was hidden, I’d found the big secret, I’d turned over the key rock, and now I just had the minor, unimportant little detail of figuring out what to do about it. Splendid. I tried to recall some of the vocabulary I’d picked up during my brief stint as a foot soldier, but you have to keep up with those skills or you lose them.