Iorich by Steven Brust Read Free Book Online

e’Lanya, House of the Dragon, Brickerstown.

Q: Rank and position?

A: Sergeant, Imperial Army, Second Army, Fourth Legion, Company D.

Q: What were your orders on the second day of the month of the Lyorn of this year?

A: We were to escort a supply train from Norest to Swordrock. On that day, we were passing through Tirma, in the duchy of Carver.

Q: And what had you heard about Tirma?

A: We knew the entire duchy was in rebellion.

Empress: Did you know this officially, or through rumor?

A: It was common knowledge, Your Majesty.

Q: Answer Her Majesty’s question, Sergeant.

A: We were never informed officially.

Orb shows falsehood

Q: Would you care to reconsider that answer, Sergeant Dornin?

A: No, my lord. That is my answer.

Q: Had anything unusual happened that day before you reached Tirma?

A: There were the usual problems with the wagon train, but no attacks or incidents.

Q: Describe what happened when you entered Tirma.

A: We were set on by a mob that was trying to take away the wagons, and we defended ourselves.

Q: While you were in Tirma, were you or your command involved in any fighting or violence that did not involve defending yourselves against an attack?

A: We were not.

Orb shows falsehood

Q: Would you care to reconsider your answer?

A: I would not.

Q: Are you aware of the penalties for lying beneath the Orb?

A: I am.

     
    I went back down the half-flight of stairs, down the hall, and stopped, trying to remember the name I’d been given.
    “Delwick.”
    “I knew that.”
    “Right.”
    “Okay, I was about to remember.”
    “Right.”
    “Shut up.”
    I found my way back to where Harnwood still waited. He smiled as if he were glad to see me. I bowed as precisely as I could manage—not that he’d let me know if I missed my mark—and said, “Pardon me, do you know a Lord Delwick?”
    “Of course, my lord. Shall I take you to where he is?”
    “If you’d be so kind.”
    He would, in fact, be so kind. He exchanged a few words with the guard stationed by the door, and gestured with his hand that I was to fall into step with him. I did so. Having known Lady Teldra so long—in the flesh, I mean—I wasn’t surprised that he made it seem effortless to shorten his strides to match my puny human ones.
    I won’t try to describe the turnings we took, nor the stairs we went up only to go down another. I will mention one extremely wide hallway with what looked like gold trimming over ivory, and hung with the psiprints of some of the oddest-looking people I’ve ever seen, all of them looking enough like Daymar to convince me they were Hawklords, and all of them staring out with the same expression: as if they were saying, “Just what manner of beast
are
you, anyway, and do you mind of if I study you for a while?”
    We walked into a perfectly square room around the size of my old flat off Lower Kieron Road—it was a pretty big flat. The room was empty. Harnwood said, “This is where the various representatives sometimes gather to speak informally.”
    “Should I wait here?”
    “No, we can find Lord Delwick’s offices.”
    I was glad the room was empty. Meeting the Jhereg representative would have been awkward. We passed through it to a door at the other end, and stepped into a hallway. He nodded to the right. “That way, following it around to the right, you’ll come back to the Imperial Audience Chamber, on the other side. Unfortunately, this is the fastest way without going through the Chamber, which is inappropriate.”
    “I understand,” I lied.
    He pretended to believe me and we turned left. There were a few doors on the right, and farther up the hallway split, but before that point he stopped outside one of the doors and clapped. There was the symbol of the Iorich above it. By then I hadn’t eaten anything except a little dried fruit in about three years, and I was in a wretched mood. I resolved not to take it out on Lord Delwick.
    “I can’t