The Book of Taltos by Steven Brust Read Free Book Online Page B

me pretty badly.
    Sethra said, “We have spoken to him at great length, but he is determinedto keep this soul imprisoned. The soul is a wealth of information for him, and his work is all he cares about. He happened to acquire it shortly after the end of the Interregnum, and has no interest in giving it up. We have been trying to convince him to sell or trade it for several weeks now, ever since we discovered where it was. We have been looking for it for more than two hundred years.”
    I began to get the picture, and I didn’t like it at all. But I said, “Okay, go on. How do I fit in?”
    “We want you to break into his keep and steal the staff.”
    I said, “I’m trying to find a polite way of saying ‘drop dead,’ and not having much luck.”
    “Don’t bother being polite,” said Sethra with a smile that sent chills up and down my spine. “I died before the Interregnum. Will you take the job?”

4
     
    I took hold of the knife I’d carried for so long and used so seldom. The one with the ebony hilt and embedded rubies, and the thin, dull blade of pure silver. It wasn’t as expensive as it looked, but then, it looked very expensive.
    I held it near the point, holding it firmly between my thumb and forefinger, then I knelt down, so slowly I felt tremors in my legs. Just as slowly, I touched the point of the dagger to the ground. I stopped for a moment, studying the dirt. It was black and dry and fine, and I wondered why I hadn’t noticed it before. I touched it with my left hand. I rubbed it between my fingers. It was powdered and very cold.
    Enough. I concentrated on the knife again, and very slowly drew the rune for the verb “to receive.” The rune, of course, was in the language of sorcery, which was meaningless at this time and in this place. But it gave me a spot to concentrate my attention on, and that was what I wanted. I drew a circle around the rune then, and set the knife aside. I knelt and studied the drawing, waiting for the moment to begin again.
    I was very much aware of Loiosh, claws hard on my right shoulder, a pressure more than a weight. It was as if none of the events of the last few days had affected him, which I knew wasn’t the case; he was the wall ofcalm, the pillar of ice, the ground that would hold me steady. If you think that isn’t important, you’re a bigger fool than I am.
    Moments went by in contemplation, and I began the next step.

    T HERE WERE NO WINDOWS in the room, yet we must have been near the outside, because I could hear distant cries of ravens, and the occasional roar of a hunting dzur. I wondered if there were dragons on the mountain, present company excepted, of course. Why have a room with a wall to the outside and not put a window in it? Who knows? I like windows, but maybe Sethra Lavode doesn’t. It is true that windows enable others to see in as well as allow you to see out.
    A candle flickered and shadows danced.
    “All right,” I said. “Let’s back up a little. If you want this staff so badly, why don’t you and the Lord Morrolan here just blast into his keep and take it?”
    “We’d like to,” said Morrolan.
    Sethra Lavode nodded. “One doesn’t just ‘blast into’ the keep of an Athyra wizard. Perhaps if I were able to leave—but never mind.”
    I said, “Okay, fine. But look: I don’t know what you know about me or what you think you know about me, but I’m not a thief. I don’t know anything about breaking into places and stealing things. I don’t know what made you think I could do it in the first place—”
    “We know a great deal about you,” said the Enchantress.
    I licked my lips. “All right, then you know I’m not—”
    “Close enough,” said Morrolan.
    “The point is,” said Sethra Lavode before I could respond, “the particular nature of Loraan’s alarm system.”
    “Ummmm, all right,” I said. “Tell me about it.”
    “He has spells over the entire keep that keep track of every human being in the place, so