Tiassa - Vlad Taltos 13 by Steven Brust

Author:Steven Brust
Format: mobi
Tags: General, Fiction, Fantasy, Taltos, Vlad (Fictitious character), Epic
ISBN: 9780765312099
Publisher: Tor Books
Published: 2011-03-28T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOUR

TWO DAYS EARLIER, DATHAANI

The Jhereg spoke slowly, his voice as melodic as he could make it, which wasn’t very: And it so happened that Barlen called together the Gods that dwelt in the Halls of Judgment, and said, Our enemy will attack us anew. We must prepare ourselves. And so each of the Gods, in his own way, spoke of the preparations he would make, whether in arms, or magic, or strength of body. But then Mafenyi, the artificer, said, I will make me a mighty device, that in the hands of one who touches the powers, will close whatever door our enemy may open to our world.

Barlen spoke high praise for Mafenyi, and the others of the Gods did as well, and so Mafenyi went forth, built the device, casting it into the form of a tiassa, all of silver, small enough to fit into the hand, yet endowed with power to close the world against the enemy.

And when it was complete, Mafenyi sent it forth into the world, knowing it would be found when it was needed.

It wasn’t about the money. Not really. To be sure, it never would have occurred to him to work for free, and the size of the payoff in this case pleased him immensely; but at heart, he wasn’t motivated by money.

It was the job itself—the pleasure of arranging each detail, and then watching it all come together. He wondered if he had been a Yendi in some previous life. He’d had the thought before, and, the more he thought about it, the more convinced he was.

“Dathaani?”

He glanced up. “Oh, sorry; I was musing.”

His guest said, “You stopped in the middle of the story.”

Dathaani’s guest was a young gentleman named Ched, of the House of the Hawk. Dathaani had invited him over for several reasons. First, Ched, despite his relative youth, had something of a reputation as a collector and popularizer of myths and legends. Second, Ched had a small gambling problem which had turned into a large debt. Third, Ched had expressed a willingness to engage in slight, insignificant dishonesty, provided no law was broken, to see this debt wiped away. Dathaani had bought up the debt, pleasing himself, Ched, and the author of the loan. Everybody won. Dathaani liked it when things worked out that way.

“Actually,” he said, “that’s pretty much it. Do you have it?”

“I have the gist of it. If you want me to be able to repeat it back, I’ll need to hear it again.”

“Presently. First, you need to know what to do with it.”

“All right, I’m listening.”

“There is an Athyra named Kosadr.”

“Funny, that’s the same name as the Court Wizard.”

“What a coincidence. His favorite place to drink is a private club called Shim’s. I’ve bought you a membership.”

“All right. I can do this.”

“Good.”

“Funny, I’ve never come across that story before.”

“If you want to touch it up a bit I’m good with that. Just so long as the key elements come across.”

“The key elements being the silver tiassa, and what it does.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.