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pretty clearly if you’re looking for it.”
    “How big?”
    “I can’t tell. Big enough, I suppose.”
    “What’s the legal status?”
    “I have no idea. I’m sure the Empire will try to sort it all out, but that’ll take years.”
    “And in the meantime?”
    “I don’t know. I’m going to have to do something, but I don’t know what.”
    Savn and Hwdfrjaanci returned then and sat down on the floor near the fire. The woman’s look discouraged questions as she took Savn’s hands in hers and began rubbing them. Vlad watched; I could feel his tension.
    I said, “You have to do something soon, don’t you?”
    He gave me a half-smile. “It would be nice. But this isn’t the sort of thing I can stumble into. I should know what I’m doing first. That makes it trickier.” Then he said, “Why are you helping me, anyway?”
    I said, “I assume you’ve been making a list of all the companies you know about and who their owners are.”
    “Yeah. They’ve gotten to know my face real well at City Hall.”
    “That may be a problem later on.”
    “Maybe. I hope not to be around here long enough for it to matter.”
    “Good idea.”
    “Yes.”
    “No help for it, I suppose. Do you think it might be wise to pick one of these players and pay a visit?”
    “Sure, if I knew what to ask. I need to figure out who really owns this land and—”
    Loiosh and I reacted at once to the presence of sorcery in the room, Vlad just an instant later. Our heads turned toward Hwdf rjaanci, who was holding Savn’s shoulders and speaking under her breath. We watched for maybe a minute, but there was no point in talking about it. I cleared my throat. “What were you saying?”
    Vlad turned back to me, looking blank. Then he said, “I don’t remember.”
    “Something about needing to find out who really owns this land.”
    “Oh, right.” I could see him mentally shaking himself. “Yeah. What I really want is to get the picture of this thing as it’s going to emerge when the Empire finishes its investigations, say two hundred years from now. But I can’t wait that long.”
    “I might be able to learn something.”
    “How?”
    “The Jhereg.”
    Vlad frowned. “How would the Jhereg be involved?”
    “I don’t know that we are. But if what Fyres was doing was illegal, and it was making a lot of money, there’s a good chance for a Jhereg connection somewhere along the line.”
    “Good point,” said Vlad.
    Loiosh was still staring at the woman and the boy. Vlad was silent for a moment; I wondered what Vlad and Loiosh were saying to each other. I wondered if they spoke in words, or if it was some sort of communication that didn’t translate. I’ve never had a familiar, but then, I’m not a witch. Vlad said, “You have local connections?”
    “Yes.”
    “All right,” he said. “Do it. I’ll keep trying to put this thing together.”
    The woman said, “Cold. So cold. Cold.”
    Vlad and I looked at her. She wasn’t shivering or anything, and the cottage was quite warm. Her hands were still on Savn’s shoulders and she was staring at him.
    “Can’t keep it away,” she said. “Can’t keep it away. Find the cold spot. Can’t keep it away.”
    After that she fell silent.
    I looked at Vlad and turned my palms up. “I might as well go now,” I said. He nodded, and went back to his paperwork. I headed out the door. The dog gave its tail a half-wag and put its head down between its paws again.
    It was over two or three miles to Northport, but I had been there often enough to learn a couple of teleport points, so I went ahead and put myself into an alley that ran past the back of a pawnbroker’s shop, startling a couple of local urchins when I appeared. They stared at me for a second, then went back to urchining, or whatever it is they do. I walked around the corner and into the dark little shop. The middle-aged man behind the counter looked up at me, but before he could say a word I said, “Sorry to disappoint