Read Online Orca by Steven Brust - Free Book Online Page B

imperial his way just as he was starting to shake his head. He caught it, opened his mouth, closed it, and started to toss it back. I put a couple of knives into the wall on either side of his head. Good thing I’d been practicing or I might have cut his hair. In any case, I do believe I frightened the man, judging by the squeaks he made.
    He said, “A kid named Tip.”
    “Where can I find him?”
    “I don’t know.”
    I pulled another throwing knife (my last one, actually—I’d just recently bought them) and waited.
    “He lives around here somewhere,” squeaked the barber. “Ask around. You’ll find him.”
    “If I don’t,” I said, “when do you expect him to deliver another one of these?”
    “A couple of weeks,” he said. “But I don’t know exactly when. I never know when they’ll show up.”
    “Good enough,” I said. I took a step toward him and he moved away, but I was only going to get my knives. I put them away and walked back out, turned right at random, and stepped into the first alley I got to. And there they were—another eight urchins, mixed sexes, mixed Houses. Street kids don’t seem to care much what your House is. There may be a moral there, but probably not.
    I walked up to them and waited a moment to give them a good look. They studied me with a lot of suspicion, a little curiosity, but not much fear. I mean, I was only an Easterner, and maybe I had a sword, but there were still eight of them. Then I said, “Do any of you know Tip?”
    A girl, who seemed to be about seventy and might have been the leader and might have been a Tiassa, said, “Maybe.”
    A boy said, “What you want him for? He in trouble?”
    Someone else said, “You a bird?”
    Someone else asked to see my sword.
    “Yeah,” I said. “I’m a bird. I’m going to arrest him as a threat to Imperial security, and then I’m going to haul him away and torture him. Any other questions?”
    There were a few chuckles.
    “Who are you?” said the girl.
    I shrugged and took out an imperial. “A rich man who wants to spread his wealth around. Who are you?”
    They all turned to look at the girl. Yes, she was definitely in charge. “Laache,” she said. “Is that thing your pet?” she asked.
    “Go ahead, explain it, boss.”
    “Shut up, Loiosh.”
    “His name is Loiosh,” I said. “He’s my friend. He flies around and looks at things for me.”
    “What does he look at?”
    “For example, if I were to give this imperial to someone to bring Tip back, he’d fly around and make sure whoever I gave it to didn’t scoot off with it. If someone took this imperial and told me where Tip could be found, Loiosh would wait with that person until I was certain I hadn’t been fooled.”
    One of the boys said, “He can’t really tell you where someone went, can he?”
    Laache grinned at me. “You think we’d do something like that?”
    “Nope.”
    “What reason do I give Tip for showing up?”
    I brought forth another imperial. “For him,” I said.
    “You sure he isn’t in trouble?”
    “No. I’ve never seen him before. For all I know, he might have robbed the Imperial Treasury.”
    She gave me a very adultlike smile and held out her hand; I gave her one of the coins.
    “Wait here,” she said.
    “I’m not going anywhere.”
    When she left, Loiosh flew off and followed her, which elicited a gasp from the assembled urchinhood.
    With her gone, the mood changed—the rest of them seemed suddenly uncomfortable, like they didn’t know quite what to do with me. That worked out all right, because I didn’t know what to do with them, either. I leaned against a wall and tried to look self-assured; they clumped together and held quiet conversations and pretended they were ignoring me. After about fifteen minutes, Loiosh said, “She’s found someone, boss. She’s talking to him.”
    “And ... ?”
    “Okay, they’re coming.”
    “Hooray. Where are they now?”
    “Just around the corner.”
    I said, “Laache