Read Dragon (Vlad Taltos) for Free Online

quickly. With that in mind, I suppose you could say I got lucky way back at the beginning of all this, when I tried to carry out Morrolan’s mission: I didn’t have to wait. We heard from Daymar the very morning after we set the psychic trap.
    I was just settling into my chair and enjoying the rare pleasure of an empty desk; if there’s something on the desk, it usually means there is something I ought to be doing. I was about to have my secretary bring me some klava when Kragar, whom I had not noticed enter my office, said, “Someone stole one of the weapons, Vlad.”
    “Melestav!” I called. “Please bring me some klava.”
    “Right away, Boss,” he answered from the next room.
    Kragar began again, “Vlad—”
    “I heard you. I’m going to pretend I didn’t. I’m going to have some klava. Then you can tell me about it.”
    “If you want it directly, I could have Daymar—”
    “No.”
    “Let me see if I understand. Do I take it you don’t want Daymar to—”
    “Kragar, shut up and let me drink my klava. Then you can be funny. If you try to be funny before I’ve had my klava, I will probably have to kill you, and then I’ll be sad.”
    “Ah. Well. I wouldn’t want you to be sad.”
    I squeezed my eyes tightly shut. When I opened them Kragar was gone. A little later Melestav tiptoed in, set a steaming cup in front of me, and tiptoed out again.
    “Well, we’re in some kind of mood today, aren’t we, Boss?”
    “I was fine when I got here.”
    I drank my klava slowly. There is a perfect way to position the lips on the cup to take in just the right amount of klava to avoid burning yourself. Everything comes with practice. I reflected on practice and on annoyance and I drank my klava and then I called for Kragar.
    “Okay,” I said. “Let’s have it.”
    “I got word from Daymar this morning that his psychic alarm had been tripped sometime last night. He says it failed to wake him, for which he sends his apologies—”
    “Apologies? I didn’t think he did that.”
    “—and suggests that the thief must be quite accomplished.”
    “All right. We’d best head over and see what was taken.”
    “He knows what was taken: one greatsword, very large, not terribly potent. Plain cross-guard with brass knobs, leather grips, sharp on one edge and part of the other, enough of a point for stabbing.”
    I tried to call up a memory of that weapon, failed, but Loiosh managed—he put the picture into my mind. I saw it leaning against a wall along with several cousins. I hadn’t noticed it; it
had been utterly undistinctive and, for a Morganti blade, not even very well constructed.
    “So, just as a guess, Kragar, I’d say it was a test, rather than that blade they were after. What do you think?”
    “Possible. Or there’s something about it we don’t know. History, enchantments, something like that.”
    “Could be that, too. Any suggestions about what we do next?”
    “You could always hire Kiera to steal it back.”
    “Letting whoever it is know that we know, for which we’d get a probably useless weapon. Any useful suggestions?”
    “Whatever we do, we have to find whoever it was who took it. I presume Daymar will be able to find out.”
    “Right. See to it.”
    “Me?”
    “Yes. I designate you Speaker to Daymar.”
    “Thank you so much.”
    “I pride myself on knowing my subordinates and matching tasks to their skills.”
    “Don’t start, Vlad.”
    There was actually a bit of truth in that remark—though only a bit. Since I’d been in control of the area, one of the things I was learning was what I could delegate and what I had to do myself. In fact, a little later I ran into a situation where—but never mind. That’s another story.
    Kragar left; I stared off into space. Loiosh said, “You worried, Boss?”
    “I’m a worrier, chum.”
    Unfortunately, there was nothing much to do that day, so I got to be pensive. I wanted to get up and pace, wander around the office, sit back