Yendi by Steven Brust Page B

a lapidary, but I know something about gems. I could detect no flaws.
    "I assume you've appraised her. What's she worth?"
    "Open market? Maybe thirty-five thousand if you look around for a buyer. Twenty-eight or thirty on quick sale. A cleaner would give at least fifteen--if he'd touch the deal at all." I nodded. "I'll give you twenty-six."
    She shook her head. I was startled. Kiera and I never bargained. If she offered me something, I gave her the best price I could, and that was that.
    But she said, "I'm not selling it. It's yours." Then, "Close your mouth, Vlad; you're creating a draft."
    "Kiera, I..."
    "You're welcome."
    "But why? "
    "What a question! I've just handed you a fortune, and you want to know why?"
    " Yeah. Shut up, boss. " Loiosh licked her ear.
    "You're welcome, too," she said.
    It suddenly occurred to me, looking at the stone, that I'd seen either her, or her cousins, before. I looked at Kiera. "Where did you get this?" I asked.
    "Why in the world would you want to know that?"
    "Tell me, please."
    She shrugged. "I had occasion to visit Dzur Mountain recently." I sighed. That's what I'd thought. I shook my head and held the stone out to her. "I can't. Sethra's a friend of mine."
    Then Kiera sighed. "Vlad, I swear by the Demon Goddess that you are harder to help than Mario is to sneak up on." I started to speak, but she held up her hand. "Your loyalty to your friend does you credit, but give me--and her--some credit, too. She can't help support a Jhereg war any more than Morrolan can. That didn't stop Morrolan, did it?"
    "How did you--?"
    She cut me off. "Sethra knows what became of this stone, though she'd never admit it. All right?"
    I was struck speechless once more. Before I could talk, Kiera handed me the pouch. I mechanically put the stone into the pouch, the pouch into my cloak. Kiera leaned over and kissed me. "For an assassin," she said, "you're a real sweetheart." Then she was gone.
    Later that day, Temek reported in with a list of five establishments owned by Laris. I arranged for some wizards to appear in two of them as customers to begin infiltration. Wizard, by the way, can mean either a particular kind of very powerful sorcerer, or, in the Jhereg, someone who does any one specific job very well. If you wonder how to tell which is meant--well, so do I.
    Anyway, four of the wizards started penetrating two of Laris's businesses, while Kragar made arrangements for the other places. We hit the first one that evening. Nine thugs, mostly from the House of the Orca and hired for two gold per, descended on the place. Laris had two enforcers there, each of whom got one of our people before he was overpowered. The invaders used knives and clubs on the customers. There were no fatalities, but no one would be wanting to visit that place for a while. Meanwhile, I hired more of these types to protect my own businesses from similar treatment.
    Two days later we hit another one, with excellent results. That evening, Temek reported that Laris had dropped out of sight and was apparently running things from some hidden location.
    The next morning Narvane, following up a rumor, found Temek's body in an alley behind the first place we'd hit. He was unrevivifiable.
    Three days after that, Varg reported that he'd been approached by one of Laris's people to cooperate in an attempt to get me. Two days later, Shoen found the individual who'd approached Varg, alone. The guy was coming back from his mistress's flat. Shoen finalized him. A week after that, two of the wizards who were infiltrating one of Laris's establishments were blown to pieces in the middle of dinner in a small klava hole, by a spell thrown from the next table.
    A week later we pulled another raid on one of Laris's places. This time we hired twenty-five toughs to help us. Laris had built up his defenses, so six of my people took the trip, but they did the job.
    Sometime in there, Laris must have lost his temper. He had to have paid through the nose, but he