“Okay.”
I opened my bottom-left desk drawer and rummaged around until I found a fairly serviceable enchanted dagger. I scratched a rough circle on the floor and made a few marks in it. Then I stepped into the middle.
“Why do you do all that drawing, boss? You don’t need to—”
“It helps, Kragar. See you later.”
I drew on my link to the Orb and was in the courtyard of Morrolan’s Castle, feeling sick. I avoided looking down because the sight of the ground, a mile below, would not have helped at all. I stared straight at the great double doors, some forty yards in front of me, until I no longer felt like throwing up.
I walked up to them. Walking in Morrolan’s courtyard feels exactly like walking on flagstone, except your boots don’t make any noise, which is disconcerting until you get used to it. The doors swung open when I was about five paces away, and Lady Teldra stood facing me, a warm smile on her face.
“Lord Taltos,” she said, “we’re delighted to see you, as always. I hope you’ll be able to stay with us for at least a few days this time. We see you so seldom.”
I bowed to her. “Thank you, Lady. A short mission only, I’m afraid. Where can I find Morrolan?”
“The Lord Morrolan is in his library, my lord. I’m certain he’d be as delighted to see you as the rest of us.”
“Thanks,” I said. “I can find my own way.”
“As you wish, my lord.”
It was always like that, with her. And she made you believe all that stuff, too.
As she’d said, I found Morrolan in the library. When I walked in, he was sitting with a book open on the table before him, holding a small glass tube suspended by a piece of thread over a black candle. He looked up as I came in, and set the tube aside.
“That’s witchcraft,” I told him. “Cut it out. Easterners do witchcraft; Dragaerans do sorcery.” I sniffed the air. “Besides, you’re using basil. You should be using rosemary.”
“I was an accomplished witch three hundred years before you were born, Vlad.”
I snorted. “You still should be using rosemary.”
“The text failed to specify,” he said. “It’s been rather badly burned.”
I nodded. “Where were you trying to see?”
“Around the corner,” he said. “It was merely an experiment. But please, sit down. What may I help you with?”
I sat in a large, overstuffed chair done in black leather. I found a piece of paper on a table next to it, and a pen. I picked these up and began writing. As I did so, Loiosh flew over to Morrolan’s shoulder. Morrolan dutifully scratched his head. Loiosh accepted graciously, and flew back. I handed Morrolan the paper, and he looked at it.
“Three names,” he said. “I fail to recognize any of them.”
“They’re all Jhereg,” I said. “Kragar should be able to put you in touch with any of them.”
“Why?”
“They’re all good at security.”
“You wish me to hire an assistant for you?”
“Not exactly. You may want to consider one of these after I’m unavailable.”
“You expect to be unavailable?”
“In a manner of speaking. I expect to be dead.”
His eyes narrowed. “What?”
“I don’t know of any other way to put it. I expect that I’ll be dead soon.”
“Why?”
“I’m overmatched. Someone’s after my territory and I don’t intend to let him have it. I think he’ll be able to take me, and that means I’ll be dead.”
Morrolan studied me. “Why will he be able to ‘take’ you?”
“He has more resources than I do.”
“ ‘Resources’?”
“Money.”
“Oh. Please enlighten me, Vlad. How much money does something like this take?”
“Eh? Hmmm. I’d say about five thousand gold . . . every week for as long as it lasts.”
“I see. And how long is it liable to last?”
“Oh, three or four months is usual. Sometimes six. Nine is a long time, a year is a very long time.”
“I see. I presume that this visit is not an underhanded way of soliciting funds.”
I pretended surprise. “Morrolan! Of course not! Ask a Dragon to support a Jhereg war? I wouldn’t even consider it.”
“Good,” he said.
“Well, that’s all I came by for. I guess I’ll be heading back now.”
“Yes,” he said. “Well, good luck. Perhaps I’ll see you again.”
“Perhaps,” I agreed. I bowed and took my leave. I wandered down the stairs, down the hall, and to the front doors. Lady Teldra smiled as I walked past her, and said, “Excuse me, Lord Taltos.”
I stopped and turned. “Yes?”
“I believe you are forgetting something.”
She was holding out a large purse. I smiled. “Why, yes, thank you. I wouldn’t want to have forgotten that.”
“I hope we see you again soon, my lord.”
“I almost think you will, Lady Teldra,” I said. I bowed to her, and returned to the courtyard to teleport.
I arrived on the street outside of the office and hurried in. When I got into the office itself I yelled for Kragar. Then I dumped the gold onto my desk and quickly counted it.
“Sacred shit, Vlad! What did you do, lighten the Dragon treasury?”
“Only a part of it, my friend,” I said as I finished the counting. “Say about twenty thousand worth.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know how you did it, boss, but I like it. Believe me, I like it.”
“Good. Help me figure out how to spend it.”
That evening, Kragar made contact with seven free-lance enforcers and persuaded five of them to come to work for me for the duration. While he was doing that, I reached Temek.
“What is it, boss? We’re just getting start—”
“I don’t care. What do you have, so far?”
“Huh? Not much of anything.”
“Forget the ‘not much.’ Do you have even one place? Or one name?”
“Well, there’s a real popular brothel on Silversmith and Pier.”
“Where exactly?”
“Northwest corner, above the Jungle Hawk Inn.”
“Does he own the inn, too?”
“Don’t know.”
“Okay. Thanks. Keep at it.”
When Kragar checked in, to report procuring number two, I said, “Take a break for a while. Get hold of Narvane. Have him stop what he’s doing—he’s helping Temek—long enough to wipe out the second floor of the Jungle Hawk Inn on Silversmith and Pier. Just the second floor. Got it?”
“Got it boss! Looks like we’re off!”
“You bet your bonus we’re off. Get busy.”
I took a piece of paper and began scratching out some notes. Let me see, to protect each of my businesses against direct sorcerous attack for two months would cost . . . hmm. Make it one month then. Yes. That would leave me enough to work with. Good. Now, I’d want to—
“Cut it out, boss.”
“Huh? Cut what out, Loiosh?”
“You’re whistling.”
“Sorry.”
Burning down an enemy’s business is not a normal thing for a Jhereg war. It’s expensive and it gets noticed, neither of which is good. But Laris had hoped to take me out with one good shot. My response was to let him see that I was not only not down, but I wasn’t even hurting. This was a lie, but it should discourage any more of the heavy-handed nonsense.
Narvane reported in the next morning to say that the job had gone fine. He got a nice bonus for his trouble, and orders to lie low for a while. I met with the new enforcers and assigned them to their tasks, all of which involved defensive work—protecting this or that place. I still didn’t have enough information on Laris’s operation to know how I could hurt him, so I had to protect myself.