Read Dragon (Vlad Taltos) for Free Online Page A

down, and do all the things one does when one is nervous. But it’s just no damn good letting your subordinates think you’re easy to shake, so I sat at my desk, cooked some meals in my mind, remembered past lovers, and exchanged banter with Loiosh.
    Lunchtime was a relief. I went to an Eastern place run by a
woman named Tserchi and had roasted duckling in a sour cherry sauce garnished with celery root and served with a pan-fried garlic bread that wasn’t as good as Noish-pa made but was perfectly edible. I tried to linger over the food, which of course made me eat faster. Tserchi joined me after the meal. I had a sorbet for dessert along with an orange liqueur and the pleasure of hearing her complain about how much she had to pay for ice. I was glad she was there, because I don’t like eating alone. I made it back to the office and Kragar was waiting for me.
    I noticed his cloak when I returned, so I knew he was there. I sat down at my desk and tried not to look like I was waiting for him.
    If you’re getting the impression that I’d built this thing up into something far more important than it probably was, well, I told myself the same thing. The fact that I turned out to be right might make me seem prescient. I don’t know. I’ve been wrong about such things, too, but those occasions don’t make for interesting stories.
    “Okay, Vlad, I’ve got it,” Kragar told me.
    “Took you long enough,” I said, just because I was irritated.
    “Uh huh. And suppose I just walked in and gave you a name. What would you say?”
    I’d have told him to go find out about the guy, of course, and probably have made some sarcastic remark about his failure to have already done so. Sometimes you have to admit defeat.
    “Okay,” I said. “Good work.”
    “Thanks.”
    “Sit down and let’s hear it.”
    Melestav stuck his head in right then and said, “Kragar? I found that map.”
    “Thanks. Bring it in, please.”
    We’re always polite to each other around the office.
    I bit back any questions that Kragar would feel smug about answering, and waited. I shuffled paperweights and writing gear
off to the side of my desk while Kragar unrolled a map that almost covered it. The map seemed fairly recent, and had the peculiar mix of sharp and fuzzy areas that denotes a psiprint; most of it, however, was very clean and distinct, indicating a skilled and careful artist. I recognized the region at once because Dzur Mountain was marked near the left-hand border, and I recognized the Barnsnake River two-thirds of the way toward the right, which meant the markings on the right border were the foothills of the Eastern Mountains.
    Kragar pointed to an area a little above and to the right of Dzur Mountain. “Fornia County,” he said, tracing an area that ran almost all the way to the edge of the map.
    “Never heard of it.”
    “Oh, well, never mind, then.”
    “Get on with it.”
    “Melestav is looking for a more detailed map, just in case we need it. But that’s where the weapon went.”
    “And what do you know of Fornia? Count or Countess?”
    “Count. Fornia e’Lanya. Dragonlord, of course. And a neighbor of Sethra Lavode.”
    “I wonder who borrows sugar from whom?”
    “Huh?”
    “Never mind. Eastern custom.”
    “The name ‘Fornia’ comes from the old language of the House of the Dragon and means ‘patience.’ There’s probably a story there but I don’t know it. Fornia is old; over two thousand. A sorcerer of some repute. Battle magic, mostly. He also keeps a staff of sorcerers to assist him. No discoveries, but they have a good reputation in the House.”
    I grunted.
    Kragar continued. “He did a fair bit of expanding before the Interregnum, and he’s been at it again during the last hundred years or so. Maintains a standing army of about six hundred, but also hires as needed, including Easterners. He—”
    “Easterners? I don’t understand.”
    “He’s been known to hire Eastern mercenaries for certain