The Book of Taltos (58 page)

I said, “My name is Vladimir Taltos. My friends are called Morrolan e’Drien and Aliera e’Kieron. We’ve come to discuss peace.”

The two guards with the spears looked very unhappy and kept glancing at the two Great Weapons. Well, hardly surprising. I said, “Perhaps, my friends, we should sheathe our weapons.” They did so.

The King said, in a raspy whisper, “How did you get here?”

“Sorcery, Your Majesty.”

“But—”

“Oh, yes, I know. We’ve solved that problem.”

“Impossible.”

I shrugged. “In that case, we’re not here, and you can safely ignore us. I should tell you, Your Majesty, that we came here in order to kill you and as many important advisors and chiefs as we could find. We changed our minds when we saw how poorly protected you were.”

“Messengers have gone out,” he said. “Troops will be arriving in moments.”

“In that case,” I said, “it would be well if we had our business concluded before they arrive. Otherwise, well, things could get ugly.”

His mouth worked in anger and fear. The grey-haired woman leaned over to him and started to say something. I gave silent orders to Loiosh and Rocza. They left my shoulders and flew to the two guards. As puppets controlled by a single string, the guards winced, began to panic, caught themselves, and held still as the jhereg landed on their shoulders. I was very impressed with the guards; they trembled, but didn’t move. I smiled.

The King said, “You assassinated—”

“Yes,” I said. “I did. And you will never know the reason. But you have sunk several of our ships, killing hundreds of our citizens. How many lives is a King worth, Your Majesty? We are willing to call the score even if you are.”

“He was my father.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Sorry,” he said scornfully.

“Yes. I am. For reasons I can no more explain than I can explain why I did it. But what’s done is done. Your father was given a good blood price,
Your Majesty; the crews of—how many ships? Your Majesty, we want to end it. Can you—?”

At that moment there was the sound of tramping feet. I broke off my speech, but didn’t turn around.

“How many, Loiosh?”

“About twenty, boss.”

“Aliera, Morrolan, watch them.”

“We’re already doing it, Vlad,” said Morrolan. I think it bothered him to appear to be taking orders from me. Tough. At that moment I heard Daymar’s voice in the back of my mind. I let the contact occur and said,
“All is well. Check back later.”
The contact faded.

There were, indeed, a good number of them, but we were between them and the King. Moreover, each of the two guards who stood between us had a poisonous jhereg on his shoulder. I said, “You must decide, Your Majesty. Unless, that is, you would like us to slaughter your troops for you first, and then continue the negotiations?”

“How do you know,” he said at last, “that I will hold to an agreement made under these circumstances?”

“I don’t,” I said. “Furthermore, you are most welcome to break it. If you do, of course, we will be back. Perhaps with a few thousand troops.”

He turned to the old woman at his side and they spoke together quietly.

“Loiosh, what are they saying?”

“She says Elde has no objection to peace if he can get a guarantee that—”

“Very well,” said the King. “I agree. The ships we’ve sunk will be the indemnity for the damage done to us. We—bide a moment.”

He spoke quietly to the two men on the other side of the throne.

“Loiosh?”

“I can’t hear them, boss.”

“All right. The old woman must be the ambassador or something from Elde Island. Perhaps the others are advisors of some sort.”

We waited while they spoke together, then the King nodded and said, “But we require two things. First, assurances that no reprisals will be taken either against us or against our ally. Second, we want the assassin and his accomplice returned to us for punishment.”

I turned to glance at Morrolan and Aliera. Aliera was still watching the
armed men at the back of the room; Morrolan turned his head toward me and silently mouthed the word “assassin,” with a lift to his eyebrows. I smiled and turned back to the King.

“As to your first condition,” I said, “I give you my word. Isn’t that sufficient?”

“No,” said the King.”

“You aren’t really in much of a position to bargain.”

“Maybe,” he said, apparently beginning to recover now that he had troops handy. “But maybe it isn’t all that easy for you to break through here. Maybe you cannot send troops to invade us. Maybe it was only a fluke that allowed the three of you to arrive here this way. Maybe you didn’t break through the way you claim you did, but sneaked past our ships in a vessel of your own.”

“Maybe,” I agreed. “But do you think we could slip past you in your own waters? And do you want to chance it?”

“If you do not meet the conditions, yes.”

“What sort of guarantees do you want?”

“The word of your Empress.”

I said, “We are unofficial envoys. I cannot speak for her.”

“We will write out a treaty that specifies the conditions. The Empress may sign it and return it to me, or not. We will allow a single small ship, bearing your Empire’s standard, to land to return the document. We will cease our attacks for three days, which will give time to sign and return it. I warn you that, during those three days, our preparations for war, and the preparations of our ally, will continue.”

“Fair enough,” I said. “As to the second condition, it is impossible.”

He looked at me, then spoke quietly to his advisors. The one I recognized kept glancing at me. The King looked up and said, “In that case, you may signal the slaughter to begin, for we will not allow you and your accomplice to go unpunished.”

“Your Majesty, have your scribe prepare the document while I consider this matter. We may be able to work something out.”

“Very well.” The old man at his left hand, it seemed, was the scribe. He left for a moment, and returned with pen, blotter, ink, and parchment, and began writing.

I said, “May I approach you, Your Majesty?”

The two guards in front of him tensed, but he said, “Very well.”

“Vlad, what are you doing?” asked Morrolan.

“Bide a moment,” I said.

I spoke to the King quietly for a few minutes, with the advisor, the emissary, and bushy-brows listening in. Loiosh said,
“Boss, you—”

“Shut up.”

“But—”

“Shut up.”

The King looked at me closely, then at the advisor, who nodded. Bushy-brows also nodded. The emissary said, “It is no concern of ours, Your Majesty.”

The King said, “Very well. So be it,” and the scribe continued writing. I backed up. Loiosh and Rocza returned to my shoulders, and the two guards relaxed.

Aliera said, “Vlad, what did you just do?”

“Worked a compromise,” I said. “I’ll explain when we’re back home.”

While the scribe was working, I felt Daymar’s contact once more.
“Five minutes,”
I told him.
“We’re almost done.”

“I’ll have Seth—”
His pseudo-voice faded away in midsentence. The scribe finished, the King signed it. I took it, read it, nodded, rolled it up, and handed it to Morrolan, who at once started unrolling it.

“No,” I said. “Read it at home.”

“Why?”

“We have to leave now.”

And, indeed, at that moment I felt Daymar’s presence again.
“Okay,”
I told him.
“Take us home.”

The spell came on very slowly; so slowly I was afraid for a moment it wasn’t going to work. But a reddish glow began to surround us. It became stronger, and I felt it begin to grab and take hold, and I felt the beginnings of the disorientation I’d felt before.

It was no difficulty at all to take a step to my left so I was out of range of its effects. I saw Morrolan and Aliera slowly fade, not realizing, yet, that I had been left behind.

The King was staring in amazement at the evidence that sorcery had invaded his realm. I brought his attention back to me by saying, “So, Your Majesty, just out of curiosity, what are the island customs as regards execution of regicides?”

Dealing With Upper Management I

T
HEY CAME AND TOOK
hold of my arms, others took my rapier, my belt dagger, and my cloak, leaving me with only about nine weapons, and those they’d no doubt get to later. The King said, “It has never happened before, so we have no custom. We shall not be cruel.”

“Thanks,” I said. “I appreciate that.”

“I will stand by my agreement, but tell me now: Is it true that Aibynn of Lowporch was not your accomplice?”

“It’s true. Until you demanded he be turned over to you, I suspected he was a spy of yours. He helped me, however, so I feel a certain loyalty to him.”

“Why did you conceal our agreement from your friends?”

“They wouldn’t have allowed it.”

“Then perhaps they will try to rescue you.”

“I’m sure they will. I think you should get it done quickly, before they have time.”

He whispered to the advisor, who nodded and scurried off. “Soon,” he said, “we will have enough troops to—”

“To die,” I told him. “You don’t know what you’re dealing with. Have you ever heard of a weapon the Serioli call Magical-Wand-for-Creating-Death-in-the-Form-of-a-Black-Sword?
We call it Blackwand, and my friend Morrolan wields it. How about Dagger-Shaped-Bearer-of-Fire-That-Burns-Like-Ice? Sethra Lavode of Dzur Mountain carries that. And then there’s Artifact-in-Sword-Form-That-Searches-for-the-True-Path. We call it Pathfinder, and Aliera e’Kieron carries it. Your Majesty, you are making a mistake if you think you can bring in enough troops to keep them from rescuing me if I’m still alive when they get here.”

He stared. “Is it your Empress who makes you so loyal that you will sacrifice your life for her? Or is it the Empire?”

“Neither,” I said. “They are holding my wife captive, and I hope to win her release.”

“Captive? For what?”

“Leading a rebellion.”

He stared, then began to smile, and then he laughed. “So, you sacrifice your life in the interests of the Empire that is holding your wife captive for trying to overthrow it? And you do this to win her release, so she can try to overthrow it again?”

“Something like that.” I didn’t think it was all
that
funny.

“Is that why you murdered my father in the first place?”

“No.”

“Then why?”

“Look, Your Majesty, my friends will probably be back as soon as they’ve figured out what happened. It will take them a while to perform the spell again, but I don’t know how long a while that will be. If I’m still alive when they get here, things will get very bloody very fast. And, to be honest, I’m not enjoying standing around very much. Why don’t we just get this over with?”

“My dear assassin,” said the King. “We intend to execute you. We are not about to just cut you down on the spot.”

“Then you’re a fool,” I snapped.

“Do you really think they can be back so quickly?”

“Probably not, but I have no way of knowing. Right now, they’re probably arguing with each other about that very issue. By now they’ve already decided to do it, and are figuring out if they remember the place well enough. They are
not
just standing around; I know them.”

He nodded. “What about those—those beasts of yours.”

“They won’t hurt you.”

“You think not? Boss, I’m going to kill anyone who tries to touch you.”

“You will not.”

“How are you going to stop me?”

“Loiosh, this is for Cawti.”

“Yeah? So?”

I cleared my throat. “Excuse me, Your Majesty, but there’s a bit of a problem here, after all. Give me a moment to work this out.”

“With those beasts?”

“They, um, they’re friends, Your Majesty, and they don’t want anyone harming me. Give me a moment to speak with them.”

He shook his head. “How does someone like you inspire such loyalty?”

“Damned if I know,” I said. “Basic integrity, I guess.”

He cocked his head to the side. “You speak lightly, but perhaps it is true. You were hired, were you not? You kill for gold?” I shrugged. “If I paid you enough, would you kill the man who hired you?”

I thought about attempting to assassinate Verra and laughed. “Not likely in this case, I’m afraid.”

“A shame,” he said. “Because you are nothing more than a tool, and I would rather have the wielder of the tool. Yes, I will kill you, and your poisonous friends as well, if necessary, and I will hold with the bargain I made. But I would much rather know who gave the order, so I can strike him down instead. Come. I offer you your life. Will you tell me?”

Was I supposed to tell him it was a god? Would he believe me? What would he do if he did? It was laughable. I said, “Sorry, the rules don’t permit it. Let’s get this done, shall we? Here, hand me that pouch of mine.” No one moved. “Oh, come now,” I said, “if I’d been planning to kill you, I would have done so when I had all the odds on my side.”

The King nodded, and they released me and handed me the pouch, still watching me closely. I removed a couple of powders and set them on the floor.

“Boss, that’s not fair.”

“Neither is life, chum.”
“There,” I said aloud. “Mix those powders together equally, dissolve them in water. If anyone is bit by one of my friends,
that will make sure they take no worse effect than a bit of illness. It’s what I used while training them. I assume you have someone who doesn’t mind a bite or two?”

The King turned to bushy-brows. “Let it be done, then.”

My old interrogator nodded and said, “By what means?”

“Send for an axe, and let his head be struck off.”

“You know,” I said, “that you’ll get blood all over the floor.”

“It can be cleaned,” said the King. Then, “Don’t you even care?”

I looked at his young face, and wondered how close he had been to the King his father, whom I had killed. I wondered once more about Verra, who had set all this in motion, and I regretted that I wouldn’t have a chance to tell her about it in detail. “What’s the difference?” I said. “Sure, I care. When has that changed anything?”