[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
We walked out the door after a couple of glasses each. Then Morrolan
stopped. I stood next to him. He closed his eyes and held himself still,
then nodded to me. I braced myself, and South Adrilankha vanished. I
expected to feel nauseous, and I was.
I hate that.
The target lived about half a mile away. To kill time as we walked, I
asked Kragar to tell me about him.
I don t know much, Vlad. He s an Orca, and he s owed Nielar the
money for quite a while.
An Orca? That s nice to hear.
Why?
a
a
T
T
n
n
s
s
F
F
f
f
o
o
D
D
r
r
P
P
m
m
Y
Y
e
e
Y
Y
r
r
B
B
2
2
.
.
B
B
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
m
m
w
w
o
o
w
w
c
c
.
.
.
.
A
A
Y
Y
B
B
Y
Y
B
B
r r
Nothing, I said. He glanced at me quickly but didn t comment. Is he
big?
Kragar shrugged. What s the difference? Hit him hard enough and
he ll go down.
Is that what we want to do? I asked, remembering Kiera s advice.
Start swinging? I discovered I was feeling nervous. When I d taken
to beating up the Dragaerans who d been beating me up, it always
happened suddenly. I d never actually set out to get one. It makes a
difference.
Kragar said, Up to you.
I stopped. What is this? You ve done this before; I haven t. Why am I
making all the decisions?
That was my deal when I agreed to work for Nielar that I never have
to give an order.
Huh? Why?
None of your business.
I stared at him. Then I noticed that the House of the Dragon was so
clearly marked on his face I couldn t understand how I d missed it
before. There was almost certainly a story there.
As we resumed our walk, I pondered Kragar. He was almost exactly
seven feet tall, had medium straight brown hair, brown eyes, and,
well, really nothing else to distinguish him. Questions buzzed around
my head, without attending answers. Where had he come from? How
had he found himself in the Jhereg?
He touched my shoulder and pointed to a building. It bore the
insignia of a wolf howling and seemed to be a pretty nice place from
the outside. The inside was also in good repair. We walked through
the main room, earning some scowls from patrons who didn t like
Easterners, Jhereg, or both. We went up the stairs. As we climbed the
three flights and turned to the left, I was still wondering about
Kragar, and I continued to wonder until we had clapped outside the
door and it had opened.
The Orca looked at me and blinked. He said, Yeah, whiskers?
Oh. Here I was. I d been so distracted thinking about Kragar that I
hadn t considered how to approach the Orca. Well, since I didn t
know what to say, I hit him in the stomach with the stick. He said
something like Oooph and buckled over. I think I might have
cracked a couple of ribs; my aim wasn t all that good. I wondered if he
a
a
T
T
n
n
s
s
F
F
f
f
o
o
D
D
r
r
P
P
m
m
Y
Y
e
e
Y
Y
r
r
B
B
2
2
.
.
B
B
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
m
m
w
w
o
o
w
w
c
c
.
.
.
.
A
A
Y
Y
B
B
Y
Y
B
B
r r
was the right guy.
In any case, the top of his head was right below me. I almost brought
the club down, but I remembered Kiera s words and didn t. Instead I
put my foot against him and pushed. He fell over backward and it
occurred to me how easy it had been to take the guy when he wasn t
expecting an attack.
He rolled over onto his stomach, coughing. I d gotten him pretty good,
but Orca are tough. I put my foot on his back. Kragar came up next to
me and put a foot on the guy s neck. I removed my foot and walked
around, then knelt down in front of him. He seemed startled and
craned his neck, looking around. I guess he hadn t realized there were
two of us. Then he glared at me.
On impulse I reached into my cloak, pulled out my jhereg, and held
him in front of the guy. I said, Hungry, Loiosh?
Mama?
It s okay.
Loiosh flicked a tongue out toward the Orca, whose eyes were now
wide with fear. I said to him, You owe people money.
Let me up, he croaked. I ll give it to you.
No. I don t want it. I want you to pay it. If you don t, we ll come back.
You have twenty-four hours. Do you understand?
He managed to nod.
Good. I stood up and put Loiosh away. I headed out to the stairs,
Kragar behind me.
Once we d left, Kragar said, Why didn t you take the money?
I said, Huh? I don t know. I guess it would have felt like robbing
him.
Kragar laughed. Well, I suppose on reflection it was funny. I was
trembling a bit. If Kragar had commented on it I would have smashed
his face in, but he didn t.
I had settled down by the time we were back where we d started. The
shoemaker wasn t around when we returned, but Nielar was. He
studied me, ignoring Kragar, and said, Well?
I said, I don t know.
You don t know?
a
a
T
T
n
n
s
s
F
F
f
f
o
o
D
D
r
r
P
P
m
m
Y
Y
e
e
Y
Y
r
r
B
B
2
2
.
.
B
B
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
m
m
w
w
o
o
w
w
c
c
.
.
.
.
A
A
Y
Y
B
B
Y
Y
B
B
r r
Does the guy have dark hair that he wears plastered straight back,
kind of a wide face, big shoulders, a short neck, and a little white scar
across his nose?
I ve never noticed the scar, but, yeah, that sounds right.
Then we talked to the right guy.
That s good. What did you talk about?
We asked him if he wouldn t mind paying what he owes.
What did he say?
He seemed to consider the matter carefully.
Nielar nodded slowly. Okay. Where s Kragar?
Right here, said Kragar, sounding amused.
Oh. What do you think?
He ll pay. We gave him a day. He paused, then, Vlad does good
work.
Nielar studied me for a moment. Okay, he said. I ll be in touch with
you guys.
I nodded and walked out of the shop. I wanted to thank Kragar, but I
couldn t find him. I shrugged and went home to feed Loiosh and wait.
I got home feeling a bit exhausted, but good. I was pretty pleased with
life for a change. I fed Loiosh some cow s milk and fell asleep on the
couch with him on my stomach. Perhaps I was smiling.
The first thing I noticed was the sky. It was still the ugly reddish,
orangish thing that hangs over the Empire, but it was higher and
somehow cleaner. We were surrounded by grasses that reached my
waist. There was not a tree or a mountain or a building in sight.
We stood there for a few minutes, Morrolan politely remaining silent
while I took several deep breaths, trying to recover from the
aftereffects of the teleport. I looked around, and something occurred
to me. I tried to figure it out, then said, All right, I give up. How did
you get a teleport fix on a spot with absolutely no distinguishing
features?
He smiled. I didn t. I just fixed on approximately where I wanted to
go, visualized the area, and hoped nothing would be there.
I stared at him. He smiled back at me. Well, I said after a while. I
guess it worked.
a
a
T
T
n
n
s
s
F
F
f
f
o
o
D
D
r
r
P
P
m
m
Y
Y
e
e
Y
Y
r
r
B
B
2
2
.
.
B
B
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
m
m
w
w
o
o
w
w
c
c
.
.
.
.
A
A
Y
Y
B
B
Y
Y
B
B
r r
I guess so. Shall we begin walking?
What direction?
Oh. Right. He closed his eyes and turned his head slowly from side
to side. He finally pointed off in a direction that looked like any other.
That way, he said.
Loiosh flew overhead. The breeze was cool but not chilly. Morrolan
cut back on the length of his strides so he wouldn t keep getting ahead
of me.
I tried not to think of the whithers or the wherefores of the journey,
but the staff in Morrolan s left hand kept reminding me.
Chapter 9
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]