[Vlad Taltos 04] Taltos Read online

  Taltos

  Vlad Taltos

  Book IV

  Steven Brust

  Penguin Group (USA)

  Copyright 1988 by Steven K. Z. Brust

  ISBN: 0-441-18200-3

  Excerpt

  The problem with running your own business ...

  “Why didn’t you follow him?”

  “He teleported straight to DzurMountain.”

  “DzurMountain,” I repeated a long moment later. “Well, I’ll be dragon fodder. How could he have known the teleport coordinates? How could he have known he’d be safe from what’s-her-name? How—?”

  “Her name is Sethra Lavode, and I don’t know.”

  “We’ll have to send someone after him.”

  “No chance, Vlad.”

  “Why not? We’ve got money.”

  “Vlad, it’s DzurMountain. Forget it.”

  “What’s so special about DzurMountain?”

  “Sethra Lavode,” said Kragar. “She’s a vampire, a shape-shifter, holds a Great Weapon, is probably the most dangerous wizard living, and has the habit of killing people who get near her, unless she decides to turn them into norska or jhereg instead.”

  “There are worse fates than being a jhereg boss.”

  “Shut up, Loiosh.”

  I said, “How much of this is fact and how much is just rumor?”

  “What’s the difference if everyone believes the rumors? I know I won’t go near the place.” I shrugged. “Then I’ll have to go myself.”

  Acknowledgments

  My thanks to Nate, Emma, Kara, Pam, and Will.

  Special thanks are due Gail Bucich for help in keeping my history straight, and thanks, as always, to Adrian Morgan.

  CONTENT

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 1

  The Cycle: Dragon, dzur, and chreotha; athyra, hawk, and phoenix; teckla and jhereg.

  They danced before my eyes. The Dragaeran Empire, its population divided into seventeen Great Houses, each with its animal representation, seemed to unfold in my hands. Here was the Empire of Dragaerans, and here was I, the Easterner, the outsider.

  It wouldn’t get any easier.

  The eyes of no gods upon me, I began.

  Some two hundred miles to the north and east of Adrilankha there lies a mountain, shaped as if by the hand of a megalomaniacal sculptor into the form of a crouching grey dzur.

  You’ve seen it, I’m sure, in thousands of paintings and psiprints from hundreds of angles, so you know as well as I that the illusion of the great cat is as perfect as artifice or nature could make it. What is most interesting is the left ear. It is fully as feline as the other, but is known to have been fabricated. We have our suspicions about the whole place, but never mind that; we’re sure about the left ear.

  It is here, say the legends, that Sethra Lavode, the Enchantress, the Dark Lady of DzurMountain, sits like a great spider in the center of an evil web, hoping to snare the true-hearted hero. Exactly why she would wish to do this the legends don’t make clear; as is their right, of course.

  I sat in the center of my own evil web, jiggled a strand, and caused it to bring forth more particulars about mountain, tower, and lady. It seemed likely that I was going to have to visit the place, webs being the fragile things that they are.

  Of such things are legends made.

  I was going over a couple of letters I’d received. One was from a human girl named Szandi, thanking me for a wonderful evening. On reflection, I decided it had been pretty nice at that. I made a mental note to write back and ask if she’d be free sometime next week. The other was from one of my employees, asking if a certain customer could have an extension on a loan he’d taken out to cover gambling losses to another of my employees. I was thinking about this and drumming my fingertips when I heard Kragar clear his throat. Loiosh, my familiar, flew off his coat rack and landed on my shoulder, hissing at Kragar.

  “I wish he’d stop doing that, boss,” said Loiosh psionically.

  “Me, too, Loiosh.”

  I said to Kragar, “How long have you been sitting there?”

  “Not long.”

  His lean, seven-foot-tall Dragaeran frame was slouched in the chair opposite me. For once, he was not looking smug. I wondered what was bothering him, but didn’t ask. If it was any of my business, he’d tell me. I said, “Do you remember a Chreotha named Fyhnov? He wants to extend his loan from Machan, and I don’t know—”

  “There’s a problem, Vlad.”

  I blinked. “Tell me about it.”

  “You sent Quion to collect the receipts from Nielar, Macham, Tor—”

  “Right. What happened?”

  “He scooped them up and ran.”

  I didn’t say anything for a while, I just sat and thought about what this implied. I’d only been running this area for a few months, since the unfortunate death of my previous boss, and this was the first time I’d had this sort of problem.

  Quion was what I call a button-man; an ambiguous term which in this case meant he was responsible for whatever I wanted him responsible for from one day to the next. He was old, even for a Dragaeran—I guess close to three thousand years—and had promised when I hired him that he’d stopped gambling. He was quiet, as polite as Dragaerans ever are to humans, and very experienced at the sorts of operations I was running—untaxed gambling, unlicensed brothels, making loans at illegal rates, dealing in stolen goods ... that sort of thing. And he’d seemed really earnest when I’d hired him, too.

  Shit. You’d think, after all these years, I’d know better than to trust Dragaerans, but I keep doing it anyway.

  I said, “What happened?”

  “Temek and I were protecting him. We were walking by a shop and he told us to wait a minute, went over to the window like he wanted to look at something, and teleported out.”

  “He couldn’t have been snatched, could he?”

  “I don’t know of any way to teleport someone who doesn’t want to be teleported. Do you?”

  “No, I guess not. Wait a minute. Temek’s a sorcerer. Didn’t he trace the teleport?”

  “Yeah,” said Kragar.

  “Well? Why didn’t you follow him?”

  “Ummm, Vlad, neither of us has any interest in following him where he went.”

  “Yeah? Well?”

  “He teleported straight to DzurMountain.”

  “DzurMountain,” I repeated a long moment later. “Well, I’ll be dragon fodder. How could he have known the teleport coordinates? How could he have known he’d be safe from what’s-her-name? How—?”

  “Her name is Sethra Lavode, and I don’t know.”

  “We’ll have to send someone after him.”

  “No chance, Vlad. You won’t convince anyone to go there.”

  “Why not? We’ve got money.”

  “Vlad, it’s DzurMountain. Forget it.”

  “What’s so special about DzurMountain?”

  “Sethra Lavode,” said Kragar.

  “All right, what’s so special about—”

  “She’s a vampire, a shape-shifter, holds a Great Weapon, is probably the most dangerous wizard living, and has the habit of killing people who get near her, unless she decides to turn them into norska or jhereg instead.”

  “There are worse fates than being a jhereg, boss.”
>
  “Shut up, Loiosh.”

  I said, “How much of this is fact and how much is just rumor?”

  “What’s the difference if everyone believes the rumors? I know I won’t go near the place.”

  I shrugged. Maybe if I were Dragaeran I’d have understood. I said, “Then I’ll have to go myself.”

  “You want to die?”

  “I don’t want to let him get away with—how much did he take?”

  “More than two thousand imperials.”

  “Shit. I want him. See what you can learn about DzurMountain that we can count on, all right?”

  “Huh? Oh, sure. How many years do you want me to put in on this?”

  “Three days. And see what you can find out about Quion, while you’re at it.”

  “Vlad—”

  “Go.”

  He went.

  I settled back to contemplate legends, decided it was pointless, and began composing a letter to Szandi. Loiosh returned to his perch on the coat rack and made helpful suggestions for the letter. If I thought Szandi liked dead teckla, I might have even used some of them.

  * * * *

  Sometimes I almost think I can remember my mother.

  My father kept changing his story, so I don’t know if she died or if she left him, and I don’t know if I was two, four, or five at the time. But every once in a while I get these images of her, or of someone I think is her. The images aren’t clear enough to describe, but I’m sort of happy I have them.

  They aren’t necessarily my earliest memories. No, if I push my mind back, I can recall endless piles of dirty dishes, and dreams of being made to wash them forever, which I suppose comes from living above a restaurant. Don’t get me wrong; I wasn’t really worked all that hard, it’s just that the dishes made an impression that has stayed with me. I sometimes wonder if my entire adult life has been spent in an effort to avoid dirty dishes.

  One could, I suppose, have worse goals.

  * * * *

  My office is located in back of a psychedelic herb shop. There’s a room between the shop and the office that houses an almost continuous shereba game, which would be legal if we paid taxes, and would be shut down if we didn’t bribe the Phoenix Guards. The bribes are less than the taxes would be, and our customers don’t have to pay taxes on their winnings. The office portion consists of a set of several small rooms, one of which is mine, another of which is Kragar’s. I have a window that will give me a wonderful view of an alley if I ever decide to unboard it.

  It was about an hour after noon three days later when Kragar came in, and a few minutes after that, I suppose, when I noticed him sitting there.

  I said, “What did you find out about DzurMountain?”

  He said, “It’s big.”

  I said, “Thank you. Now, what did you find out?”

  He pulled out a notebook, flipped through it, and said, “What do you want to know?”

  “Many things. To start with, what made Quion think he’d be safe going to DzurMountain? Was he just getting old and desperate and figured what the hell?”

  Kragar said, “I’ve reconstructed his movements for the past year or so, and—”

  “In three days?”

  “Yeah.”

  “That’s fast work for a Dragaeran.”

  “Thanks too much, boss.”

  Loiosh, perching on his coat rack, sniggered into my mind.

  “So, what were you saying about his movements?”

  “The only really interesting thing I found was that about a month before he started working for you he was sent on an errand to a certain Morrolan.”

  I chewed this over, then said, “I’ve heard of Morrolan, but I can’t remember how.”

  “Big-shot wizard of the House of the Dragon and a friend of the Empress. Lives about a hundred and fifty miles inland, in a floating castle.”

  “Floating castle,” I repeated. “That’s it. The only one since the Interregnum. Bit of a show-off, then.”

  Kragar snorted. ‘To say the least. He calls the place ‘Castle Black.’ “

  I shook my head. Black is, to a Dragaeran, the color of sorcery. “Okay. What does Morrolan have to do with—”

  “Technically, DzurMountain is part of his fief. It’s about fifty miles from where his castle usually is.”

  “Interesting,” I said.

  “I wonder how he collects taxes,” said Loiosh.

  “It’s the only thing that stands out,” said Kragar.

  I nodded. “Mountains have a way of doing that. But all right, Kragar. It’s a connection, anyway. What else do you know about Morrolan?”

  “Not much. He spent a good portion of the Interregnum out East, so he’s supposed to be tolerant of Easterners.” Easterner means human, like me. But Dragaerans call themselves human, which is plainly ridiculous, so it can get confusing.

  I said, “Well, I could start with visiting Morrolan, if he’ll consent to see me. What did you find out about DzurMountain?”

  “Bits and pieces. What do you want to know?”

  “Mostly, does Sethra Lavode really exist?”

  “She certainly did before the Interregnum. There are still accounts of when she was a regular at court. Deathgate, boss, she was Warlord more than once.”

  “When?”

  “About fifteen thousand years ago.”

  “Fifteen thousand years. I see. And you think she might still be alive? That’s, what, five or six times a normal life span?”

  “Well, if you believe the rumors, fledgling heroes from the House of the Dzur like to chase up the mountain every so often to fight the evil enchantress, and they’re never heard from again.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “But the question is, do we believe the rumors?”

  He blinked. “I don’t know about you, Vlad, but I do.”

  I ruminated on moldy legends, enchantresses, dishonest button-men, and mountains.

  “You just can’t trust anyone anymore,” said Loiosh who flew down onto my right shoulder.

  “I know. It’s a sad state of affairs.” Loiosh snorted psion-ically. ‘Wo, I mean it, “ I said. “I trusted the son of a bitch.”

  I took out a dagger and started flipping it. After a while I put it away and said, “All right, Kragar. Send a message to the Lord Morrolan, asking him if he’d deign to receive me. Whenever he wishes, of course; I’m not—say! How do you get there, anyway? I mean, if it’s a floating castle—”

  “You teleport,” said Kragar.

  I groaned. “Okay. Try to set it up, all right? And get the coordinates to Narvane. I don’t feel like spending the money on the Bitch Patrol, so I’ll just live with a rough ride.”

  “Why don’t you do it yourself, then?”

  “Not that rough.”

  “You getting cheap, boss?”

  “What do you mean, getting?”

  “Will do, Vlad.”

  Kragar left the room.

  * * * *

  Now that I have a few years’ perspective, I have to say that I don’t think my father was cruel to me. The two of us were alone, which made everything difficult, but he did as well as he could for who he was. And I do mean we were alone. We lived among Dragaerans, rather than in the Eastern ghetto, so our neighbors didn’t associate with us, and our only other family was my father’s father, who didn’t come to our side of town, and my father didn’t like bringing me to Noish-pa’s when I was an infant.

  You’d think I’d have gotten used to being alone, but it hasn’t worked that way. I’ve always hated it. I still do. Maybe it’s an instinctive thing among Easterners. The best times were what I now think must have been slow days at the restaurant, when the waiters had time to play with me. There was one I remember: a big fat guy with a mustache and almost no teeth. I’d pull his mustache and he’d threaten to cook me up for a meal and serve me with an orange in my mouth. I can’t think why I thought that was funny. I wish I could remember his name.

  On reflection, my father probably found me more
a burden than a pleasure. If he ever had any female companionship, he did a good job of keeping it hidden, and I can’t imagine why he would. It wasn’t my fault, but I guess it wasn’t his, either.

  I never really liked him, though.

  I suppose I was four years old before my father began taking me regularly to visit my grandfather. That was the first big change in my life that I remember, and I was pleased about it.

  My grandfather did his job, which was to spoil me, and it is only now that I’m beginning to realize how much more he did. I must have been five or six when I began to realize that my father didn’t approve of all the things Noish-pa was showing me—like how to make a leaf blow slightly askew of the wind just by willing it to. And, even more, the little slap-games we’d play that I now know to be the first introduction to Eastern-style fencing.

  I was puzzled by my father’s displeasure but, being a contrary little cuss, this made me pay all the more attention to Noish-pa. This may be the root of the problems between my father and me, although I doubt it. Maybe I look like my mother, I don’t know. I’ve asked Noish-pa who I resemble, and all he ever says is, “You look like yourself, Vladimir.”

  I do know of one thing that must have hurt my father. One day when I was about five I received my first real beating, which was delivered by, I think, four or five punks from the House of the Orca. I remember that I was at the market running an errand of some sort, and they surrounded me, called me names I can’t remember, and made fun of my boots, which were of an Eastern style. They slapped me a few times and one of them hit me in the stomach hard enough to knock the wind out of me; then they kicked me once or twice and took the money I had been given to make the purchases. They were about my own size, which I guess means they were in their late teens, but there were several of them, and I was pretty banged up, as well as terrified of telling my father.

  When they were finished with me, I got up, crying, and ran all the way to South Adrilankha, to my grandfather’s house. He put things on the cuts that made me feel better, fed me tea (which I suspect he spiked with brandy), brought me home, and spoke to my father so I didn’t have to explain where the money had gone.

  It was only years later that I actually got around to wondering why I’d gone all the way to Noish-pa’s, instead of going home, which was closer. And it was years after that when I got to wondering if that had hurt my father’s feelings.