Read Online Jhereg by Steven Brust - Free Book Online Page A

saying, but isn't ten years a long time to set up one job?"
    "You're thinking like an Easterner again, Vlad. It isn't a long time if you expect to have a two-thousand-or three-thousand-year lifetime."
    I nodded and thought over what he'd suggested.
    "I can't see it, Kragar," I said finally. "How much gold was it that he got?"
    "Nine million," he said, almost reverently.
    "Right. Now, that's a lot. That's one hell of a lot. If I ever have a tenth of that in one place at one time I'll retire. But would you throw away a position on the council for it?" Kragar started to speak, stopped.
    I continued, "And that isn't the only way to get nine million gold either. It isn't the best, the fastest, or the easiest. He could have gone free-lance and done a lot better than that over those same ten years. He could have held up the Dragon Treasury, and doubled it at least, and not be taking any more risk than he is with this thing." Kragar nodded. "That's true. Are you saying that he wasn't after the gold?"
    "Not at all. I'm suggesting that he may have developed a sudden need to have a few million and this was the only way to get it in a hurry."
    "I don't know, Vlad. Just looking at his whole history, it sure seems like he had this planned out from the start."
    "But why, Kragar? No one works his way up to a seat on the council for money. You have to be after power to do something like that--"
    "You should know," said Kragar, smirking.
    "--and you don't throw away that kind of power unless you have to."
    "Maybe he lost interest in it," he said. "Maybe he was just after the thrill of getting to the top, and after he made it, he went after a new thrill."
    "If that's true," I remarked, "he's going to get his thrills, and then some. But doesn't that go against your He-Planned-It-All-From-the-Start theory?"
    "I suppose it does. I'm beginning to get the feeling that we don't have enough information; all we're doing is guessing."
    "True enough. So how about if you start collecting the information, eh?"
    "Me? Look, Vlad, my boots are in the shop this week getting new soles. Why don't we hire a flunky and get him to do the legwork for us, okay?"
    I told him where he could hire the flunky and what he could have him do. He sighed. "All right, I'm going. What are you going to be working on?" I thought for a minute. "A couple of things," I said. "For one, I'm going to try to think up a good reason for someone to suddenly decide to leave the council in such a way as to get the whole Jhereg down on his ass. Also I'm going to check in with Morrolan's spy ring and contact some of our own people. I want to dig up as much information as I can, and it wouldn't hurt to have both of us working on it. After that--I think I'll visit the Lady Aliera."
    Kragar was about halfway out the door, but as I finished speaking, he stopped and turned around. "Who?" he asked, incredulous.
    "Aliera e'Kieron, House of the Dragon, Morrolan's cous--"
    "I know who she is, I just couldn't believe I heard you straight. Why not ask the Empress, while you're at it?"
    "I have a few questions about this guy that I want to check out, and they're just the kind of thing she's good at. Why not? We've been friends for quite a while."
    "Boss, she's a Dragon. They don't believe in assassination. They consider it a crime. If you go up to her and--"
    "Kragar," I interrupted, "I never said that I was going to go up to her and say, 'Aliera, I'm trying to assassinate this guy, how would you like to help set him up?' Give me credit for a little finesse, all right? All we have to do is find some reasonable excuse for her to be interested in Mellar, and she'll be happy to help out."
    "Just a 'reasonable excuse,' eh? Just out of curiosity, do you have any idea how to find an excuse like that?"
    "As a matter of fact," I said nastily, "I do. Easiest thing in the world. I just give you the assignment."
    "Me? Dammit, Vlad, you've already got me working on background, as well as trying to figure out a