The Paths of the Dead (Viscount of Adrilankha) by Steven Brust Read Free Book Online Page A

to Dzur Mountain, and I began my search at the edge of the sea, as that is where I happened to be when I made the discovery, and my search has, so far, brought me here.”
    “But, well, what will you do if you find it?”
    “Oh, I will find it.”
    “Very well, what will you do when you find it?”
    “I will put it into that staff which you observe on my mule.”
    “Well, and then?”
    “I have not the least idea in the world. But I am convinced it will be useful. Such an object—”
    “Madam, I believe you are doing yourself the honor of mocking me.”
    “Not in the least,” said Orlaan coolly.
    “You should be aware, madam, that we—that is, my friends and I—had only intended to rob you of your mule and your possessions, and perhaps to sport with you a little. But, as you have chosen to mock us—”
    “Oh, I have been aware of your intentions all along.”
    “Have you? Well, you do not appear worried.”
    “I have no reason to be worried.”
    “And, would you care to tell me why? Quickly, if you please; you perceive my associates are becoming impatient.”
    “I will be as fast as the Great Flood of Thuvin.”
    “Very well, I am listening.”
    “I have mentioned that I was near the Sea of Amorphia.”
    “That is, the Lesser Sea.”
    “Yes, yes. The Lesser Sea. Well, can you imagine what I was doing there?”
    “Why, I have not the least idea in the world.”
    “I was coming to an agreement with it.”
    “With the amorphia? The Gods! You consider me too credible by half!”
    “Not, perhaps, a conscious bargain on its part, but I was learning how to speak with it, to convince it to do what I wish. In a word—”
    “Elder sorcery!”
    “Exactly.”
    “Pah! I do not believe you.”
    “Well,” said Orlaan, shrugging. “It then remains only for me to convince you.”
    Some hours later, a certain Teckla, who had been kept by the brigands to cook for them and help with tasks around their encampment, observed that his band had not returned. After consulting with himself (there being no one else around with whom to consult), he went off searching for them in the direction in which they had departed. Soon enough, he found what remained of them, and could only speculate on what sort of catastrophe could have left these blackened and burned remains. He did, we should say, feel a slight twinge of sorrow—the brigands had not been as unkind to him as they might have been, but then he realized that, with the booty they had left, he would be able to live comfortably for many years, if he managed it well. And, when his means began to run low, he could, no doubt, hire a boat to bring him down the river to seek his fortune in the city.
    As for Orlaan, there was no sign. It had happened that, on that day, she had found what she had been seeking.

Chapter the Fifth
     
     
    How Arra Prevented Aging
And Morrolan Discovered
His Growing Notoriety
     
     
     
    I t so happened that on a spring day Morrolan entered the chapel at Blackchapel, looking for his Priestess, Arra, who was, naturally enough, often to be found there, as it was not only where she consulted with penitents, and not only where she conducted her services, and not only where she worked with and trained what had come to be called “the Circle,” but was also where she lived.
    Having introduced the subject of living quarters, and, moreover, observing that the reader last had occasion to look in on Blackchapel several scores of years earlier, we consider it our duty, before continuing, to say two words about Blackchapel as it was at this time—that is to say, in the 243rd year of the Interregnum (although, the reader must not forget, an Interregnum that had no direct effect and little indirect effect on matters this far to the East of the old bounds of the Empire).
    Since we have last visited, then, there have been considerable changes. In the first place, what had been a sort of low, swampy field north of the chapel had been drained by clever