Read Online Orca by Steven Brust - Free Book Online

didn’t help me any, and thinking about Vlad getting killed was worse, so I went out and took a walk. Buddy came along, either because he liked my company or because he didn’t trust me and wanted to keep an eye on me.
    Good dog, either way.
    By the time we returned, it was getting dark, and Vlad was sitting at the kitchen table, with a bandage wrapped around his left forearm and no hair growing above his lip. I’m not sure which surprised me more. I think it was the lack of hair.
    There was some blood leaking through the bandage, but Vlad didn’t seem to be weak or even greatly disturbed. Buddy bounded up to him, asked him to play, sniffed at his wound, and looked hurt when Vlad pulled his arm out of reach. Loiosh watched the display with what I would have guessed to be disdain if I ever knew what jhereg were thinking. He saw me looking at him and said, “Don’t worry. It’ll grow back.”
    “Well,” I said. “You seem to have been busy.”
    “Yes.”
    “How long since you’ve returned?”
    “Not long. Half an hour or so.”
    “Learn anything?”
    “Yes.”
    I sat down opposite him. Savn was on the floor, resting. The old woman sat beside him, watching us.
    “Shall we start at the beginning?”
    “I’d like a glass of water first.”
    The old woman started to get up, but I motioned her to sit, went outside to the well, filled a pitcher, brought it in, filled a cup, and gave it to Vlad. He drank it all, slowly and carefully.
    “More?” I said.
    “Please.”
    I brought him more; he drank some of it, wiped his mouth on the back of his hand, and nodded to me.
    I said, “Well?”
    He shrugged. “The beginning was your own story.”
    “Go on.”
    He said, “It didn’t make sense.”
    “So I gathered at the time. What part of it didn’t make sense?”
    He frowned and said, “Kiera, have you ever been involved in investigating someone’s death—in trying to determine cause of death?”
    “No, I can’t say I have. Have you?”
    “No, but I’ve been concerned with several, if you know what I mean.”
    “I know what you mean. And I have an idea of what’s involved in an investigation like that.” I shrugged. “What about it?”
    “How long does it take to decide that someone wasn’t murdered?”
    “Wasn’t murdered?”
    “Yes.”
    “I don’t know. Looking at the body—”
    “Takes a day, maybe two, if he was murdered.”
    “Well, yes, but to prove a negative—”
    “Exactly.”
    “They’d have to go over him pretty carefully, I suppose.”
    “Yes. Very carefully. And they look at everything else, too—such as if he was the sort of person likely to be murdered, or if there is anything suspicious in the timing of his death, or—”
    “Exactly the sort of circumstances that surrounded Fyres’s death.”
    “Yes. Fyres’s death would set off every alarm they have. If you were the chief investigator, wouldn’t you want to be extra careful before putting your chop on a report that stated he died of mischance attributable to no human agency, or however they put it?”
    “What are you getting at?”
    “Your friend the Jhereg told you that the Imperial investigators had determined the cause of death to be accidental.”
    “And?”
    “And when did Fyres die?”
    “A few weeks ago.”
    He nodded. “Exactly. A few weeks ago. Kiera, they can’t have decided that this quickly. The only thing they could know this quickly is if it was a murder.”
    “I see your point. What’s your conclusion?”
    “That either your friend Stony lied to you or—”
    “Or someone lied to Stony.”
    “Yes. And who would lie to Stony about something like this? Of those, who would he believe?”
    “No one.”
    “Tsk.”
    “He’s a naturally suspicious fellow.”
    “Well, but who would he believe?”
    I shrugged. “The Empire, I suppose.”
    “Exactly.”
    “But the Empire wouldn’t lie.”
    Vlad raised his eyebrows eloquently.
    I shook my head. “You can’t be implying that the Imperial