Hawk (Vlad) Read Online Free PDF Page B

nodded. “That’s next on my list. Right after I figure out where.”
    “I could escort you to the Palace.”
    I shook my head. “That’s the last place I want to be.”
    “Then maybe you should see how far from Adrilankha you can get how fast?”
    “No, I’m sticking around. And that means—”
    “Why?”
    “Why? Why am I sticking around?”
    “Yes.”
    “He asks good questions, Boss.”
    “Shut up.”
    Aloud I said, “They’ve threatened my son.”
    “We’re watching out for him, and for your ex-wife.”
    “And I’m tired of running from them. I want this settled.”
    He started to speak, then just nodded.
    I said, “I need to stay in South Adrilankha, at least until I’m feeling better. Dragaerans stand out here a bit more, Jhereg in particular. It’s easier for me to vanish, and harder for the Jhereg to be sneaky.”
    “How’d that work out today?”
    I shrugged.
    “All right,” he said. He didn’t sound convinced. “If you know of a place where you’ll be safe.”
    “I’m still thinking about—oh.”
    “Not bad, Boss. Sort of safe at least.”
    “Thanks for the reassurance.”
    “You’ve thought of a place.”
    “I think so.”
    “Need an escort?”
    “There are no Jhereg around now, are there?”
    “No.”
    “Then no, thanks. I’d as soon keep this private. No offense intended to you or Her Majesty.”
    “None taken. Best of luck to you, Lord Taltos. That is, Count Szurke.”
    He turned away, his familiars following. I really hoped he was right about there being no Jhereg around, or I was going to feel very foolish for a short time.
    I started walking east, then turned north. I was still slow, but getting better. Above all, I was hungry: very, very hungry. The more I thought about it, the more convinced I was that the Warlock was right—that it was nothing more than a bunch of Jhereg following me around, and taking whatever shots at me they could. It didn’t have to be any one of the big bosses committing that much money. A group that big? Sure. The amount being offered for me was so high that a group of eight or nine could conceivably get together and agree to help each other and split the bounty afterward. It was hard to imagine a group that size trusting each other to the point where they could see each other starred—the main reasons assassins work alone is because no matter how much pressure the Imperial Justicers apply, no one can testify to something he doesn’t know about.
    But, yeah. Sometimes you need to take a leap and accept that the improbable has happened. Sometimes you even need to accept that the impossible is more possible than you’d thought. I considered this and all its implications as I made my slow, painful way through South Adrilankha.
    After taking an hour to make a ten-minute walk, we reached an area that for reasons I’d love to discover someday is called the Noose. I took Calf Lane to stay off the main thoroughfares. The houses here were wooden, old, rickety, three-story, and held eight or nine families each, and they all smelled bad. There were piles of refuse and rats to scurry around them, and here and there well-controlled fires in the middle of streets where someone was risking a conflagration in order to reduce his trash for a while. Some of the buildings had once been shops but now held families; a few of the houses now sported signs indicating a smith, a cobbler, a physicker, a tailor. I passed the place my grandfather had once lived, but I didn’t stop; I didn’t want to see what it had become.
    A little past it was a tiny cottage with a tent attached to the front, looking both out of place among the larger buildings and absurd just by itself. The entrance to the tent was covered with a quilt that had floral patterns in red and blue. Often the home of a witch is indicated by any of several symbols that depend on which culture the witch came from; but a witch who is well known in the neighborhood needs no sign.
    I pushed the quilt