09 - Issola by Steven Brust

Author:Steven Brust [Brust, Steven]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780812589177
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2001-07-06T04:00:00+00:00

9

How to Break Unwelcome News

Teldra frowned. “Excuse me?”

“Never mind; an old Jhereg joke. Let’s go back.”

“Back, Vlad?”

“To our prison.”

I watched her face, and decided she was struggling between courteously agreeing and rudely asking if I had lost my mind. I politely cut in before she had to choose.

“This place”—I gestured aimlessly—“gives me the creeps. I don’t mean just here, I mean this whole area. The Jenoine will be able to find us anywhere on their world, if they want to, so being out here will only make it harder for Morrolan and Aliera to find us.”

“Ah,” she said. “You’ve resigned yourself to being rescued, then?”

“Heh. I’m still thinking about it.”

“And you have another idea, don’t you?”

“Hmmm. Sort of a plan.”

She smiled. “That’s good enough for me,” she said, and we headed back for the building that had been our prison. I should, perhaps, have been surprised that it hadn’t vanished while we were out of sight, but it hadn’t, and the door was still where we’d left it. We went back inside. The door vanished as we stepped through, but I wouldn’t give it the satisfaction of being startled by that.

“What’s the plan this time, Boss?”

“If I told you, you’d just laugh.”

“Probably.”

“You could learn a lot from Teldra.”

“The ocean says the river is wet. The snow says the ice is cold.”

“Is that like, the jhereg says the yendi is a reptile?”

“Shut up, Boss.”

I studied the big, empty room on the big empty world, considered my predicament, thought over my idea, and tried to be optimistic. I glanced over to where the shackles still hung on the wall. The Jenoine could put us back in them easier than I’d gotten out of them. But why should they? After all, the whole reason—

“Teldra, do you think I’m paranoid?”

She blinked. “Lord Taltos?”

“I keep seeing devious plots everywhere, and thinking that everyone must have two or three layers of subterfuge behind every action.”

“I recall, my lord, your affair with the Sorceress in Green It seems to me you were correct on that occasion.”

“She’s a Yendi.”

“And these are Jenoine. Much more worrisome. With a Yendi, one at least knows everything is subterfuge and misdirection. With the Jenoine, we don’t understand them, and we don’t know if they understand us.”

I nodded. “Okay, a point.”

She continued, “I think it reasonable to wonder if we’re doing what they want us to—if they have everything planned, and each step we have taken is in accordance with their wishes. Didn’t Sethra say as much? Yet it is uncertain, because we behave unpredictably, and we don’t yet know to what extent they can anticipate and understand us. I’m working on that,” she added.

“You’re working on that?”

“Yes.”

I wanted to ask her in exactly what way was she working on it, but if she had wanted me to know, she’d have told me. All right, then. I’d go ahead and assume I was right in my surmises until I found out I was wrong—by which time it would probably be too late, and I wouldn’t have to worry about it.

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