Phoenix Read online

  What would happen? Who would I become? Would the Jhereg find a way to track me down? Would love, somehow, emerge from the ashes to which we'd reduced it? Or even spring up elsewhere, unexpected?

  I felt a smile on my face, and didn't try to second-guess it.

  I began walking west.

  About The Author

  Steven Brust was born on November 23, 1955, after which his parents gave up on the notion of having children.

  He used to tend bar, drive an ice-cream truck, wash dishes, cook food, and program computers, which ought to be enough jobs to prove a point of some sort.

  He has four children, named Corwin, Aliera, Carolyn, and Toni, which ought to be enough children to prove a point of some sort.

  He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, along with a dog named Miska the Couchman, a cat named Shadow, and a dove named Astarte, which ought to be enough pets to prove a point of some sort.

  When he isn't writing, he plays drums and writes songs for a rock 'n' roll band called Cats Laughing that also includes novelist Emma Bull, along with Adam Stemple, who arranges music for children's books and whose mother is writer Jane Yolen, which ought to give it enough fantasy connections to prove a point of some sort. If you'd like more information about Cats Laughing, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to:

  Cats Laughing

  Box 7253

  Minneapolis, MN 55407

  If you'd like more information about Mr. Brust, feel free to make it up.