Dzur Read Free Page A

Dragon Heir, and head of the most prestigious line of the House of the Dragon. It was amusing. Or something.
    So as I sit here, between Valabar's Kermeferz and the Jhereg's Mario Greymist, and await my wine with a strange Dzurlord for company, maybe I should tell you a little bit about myself. Hmmm . . . then again, maybe not.
    Mihi showed up with the wine, asking me to approve the bottle. I nodded. I was sure it was a bottle. He used the feather and, with the aid of a thick glove taken from his back pocket, the tongs. He opened it and poured without flourish. Jani, my other favorite waiter, always made it look like opening the bottle was an occasion for major triumph. It's the little stylistic things that differentiate us, don't you think?
    I leaned back in the chair like I didn't have a worry in the world and said, "Care for some wine?"
    Telnan did, Mario didn't. Mihi poured and left the bottle. I nodded, sipped, and waited for Mario to go on.
    "Good wine," said Telnan. I doubted he'd know the difference. But I could be wrong.
    Mario shifted in his chair, and, for just a moment, looked uncomfortable. Before the shock really had time to register, he said, "You know Aliera." Well, yes, I knew Aliera. That is, I knew her as well as any "Easterner" (read: human) could know a "human" (read: Dragaeran). I knew she was short, as Dragaerans go; not much over six feet tall. I knew she had a lethal temper and the skill in sorcery to back it. I knew, well .. .
    "Yeah," I said. "I suppose, in some measure, anyway." He nodded. "She asked me to speak with you."
    That was certainly worth an eyebrow. "She's concerned about my safety?" He frowned. "Well no, not really."
    "That's reassuring."
    "There are others she's concerned about."
    "Are you going to make me guess?"
    He sighed and looked unhappy.
    "Okay," I said. "I'm guessing. Since she sent you, it has to have something to do with the Organization, since Aliera would never publicly demean herself by admitting she had anything to do with criminals." Telnan and Mario both glanced at me, and I felt myself flushing. "Uh, I hadn't meant to exactly include you in that," I told Mario. He nodded. "Continue, then. You're doing well." Unfortunately, having gotten that far, I drew a blank. If Aliera was in trouble with the Organization, which I couldn't imagine, Mario could do anything I could do. And if the Organization was in trouble in some way, it was no longer a concern of mine; I no longer had any interest or connections in their doings, with the possible exception of
    "Cawti," I said.
    He nodded, and something slammed down in the pit of my stomach.
    "South Adrilankha," I said.
    He nodded again
    "My fault, then."
    He nodded again.
    "Uh . . . care to explain?" said Telnan.
    "No," I said.
    I made a few other remarks, these with more emotional than rational content.
    "I suppose," said Mario. Telnan looked puzzled. I felt Loiosh's presence in my mind, the way I sometimes do when a spell threatens to get out of control. I concentrated on my breathing, like during a fencing exercise.
    In case we haven't met before, I used to run a small area of Adrilankha. That is, when anything illegal happened there, I either got a piece of it, or made arrangements for someone to regret that I didn't get a piece of it. I also, eventually, acquired some similar interests in the Easterners' Ghetto, what was called South Adrilankha. At this time, I was happily married. To the left, my wife, Cawti, was unhappily married at the same time, mostly be-cause she had some sort of moral objection to making money off Easterners the same way we made it off Dragaerans. Who knew?
    Then she was in danger, and I heroically saved her and all like that. In the course of doing so, I made a few enemies and a quick escape. The last thing I did before leaving my career, my friends, my wife, and everything else, was to give Cawti all my interests in South Adrilankha as a kind of going-away present.
    At the time, I thought it was funny,