Read Online Teckla by Steven Brust - Free Book Online

gray jerkin and a black vest. She'd hung up her half-cloak. "Anywhere in particular?"
    "The Easterners' section, mostly."
    She turned her head to the side a bit, which was one of my favorite things to see her do. It made her eyes seem huge in that beautiful, thin face with her perfectly sculpted cheekbones. "Doing what?"
    "I went in to see Kelly."
    Her eyes widened. "Why?"
    "I explained that he should make sure you weren't doing anything that might put you in danger. I implied that I'd kill him if he did." The look of curiosity changed to disbelief, then anger. "Did you really," she said.
    "Yeah."
    "You don't seem nervous about telling me about it."
    "Thank you."
    "And what did Kelly say?"
    "He said that, as a human being, I rated somewhere between worthless scum and wretched garbage."
    She looked startled. Not upset, startled. "He said that?"
    "Not in so many words. Quite."
    "Hmmm," she said.
    "I'm glad to see that this outrage against your husband fills you with such a righteous indignation."
    "Hmmm, "she said.
    "Trying to decide if he was right?"
    "Oh, no," she said. "I know he's right. I was wondering how he could tell."
    "Cawti—" I said, and stopped because my voice broke. She came over, sat beside me, and put her hand on my leg. "I'm sorry," she said, "I didn't mean that and I shouldn't have joked about it. I know he's wrong. But you shouldn't have done what you did."
    "I know," I said, almost whispering.
    We were silent for a time. She said, "What are you going to do now?"
    "I think," I said, "that I'm going to wait until my feet feel better. Then I'm going to go out and kill someone."
    She stared at me. "Are you serious?"
    "Yes. No. I'm not sure. Half, I guess."
    "This is hard for you. I'm sorry."
    I nodded.
    She said, "It's going to get harder."
    "Yeah."
    "I wish I could help you."
    "You have. You'd do more if you could."
    She nodded. After that there wasn't any more to say, so she just sat next to me for a while. Presently, we went into the bedroom and slept. I was in the office early the next morning, with Loiosh and Rocza, I let them out my window so Loiosh could continue showing Rocza around. He had gradually been teaching her the ins and outs of the city. He enjoyed it, too. I wondered what that would do to a marriage—one having to train the other. With those two it could become strained, too—Loiosh did the teaching, but the jhereg female is dominant.
    "Hey, Loiosh—"
    "None of your Verra-be-damned business, boss." That was hardly fair; he'd been butting into my marriage. Besides, I had a right to know if I was going to be subjected to more cheap North Hill theater than what I was generating. But I didn't push it. By the time they returned, a couple of hours later, I knew what I was going to do. I got an address from Kragar, along with a dirty look for not telling him why I wanted it. Loiosh and Rocza attached themselves to my shoulders and I went down the stairs and out of the office. Lower Kieron Road, near Malak Circle, is the widest street in this part of town and is filled with inns set back from it and markets jutting out into it and hotels, some with small businesses inside of them. I owned all the small businesses. Lower Kieron took me south and west. It got gradually narrower, and more and more tenements appeared. Most of them had once been green but were now painted dirty, I abandoned Lower Kieron to follow a narrow little street called Ulor.
    Ulor widened after a bit, and about there I turned onto Copper Street, which was different from the Copper Lane near my place, or the Copper Street to the east or the Copper Street even further east or the others that I don't remember. After a few paces, I turned left into a fairly nice looking inn with long tables of polished wood and long benches. I found the host and said, "Do you have a private room?" He allowed as to how he did, although his look implied it wasn't normally polluted by the presence of Easterners. I said, "My name is Vlad. Tell Bajinok