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And Emmis wanted to know what in the World was going on, with these magicians and assassins and mysteries!
He would stay, he decided. At least for now.
And with that settled, he finally went to bed, leaving his clothes carefully draped across the furniture to air out, since he had no others to wear.
The world looked very different in the morning sun, after a night's rest, and Emmis was almost cheerful as he dressed. His tunic hardly smelled at all, despite the sweat-stains, but he still told himself he would have to wash it soon, and he would want to buy another at the first opportunity. Tailor Street was just three blocks to the east; he had never bought anything there, but earning ten bits a day in silver, he could afford it now.
He ambled down to the kitchens, seeing no sign that the ambassador was out of bed yet, and set about assembling a suitable breakfast. He had the fire hot and had just put the teakettle on when Lar appeared in the doorway.
"What do we have?" he asked.
"Boiled ham," Emmis replied. "Or sardines, if you prefer."
"Ham will do fine."
A few minutes later they were sitting in the dining room with mugs of tea and plates of ham; there were still no chairs in the kitchen.
"Good tea," Lar remarked. "Much better than the herbal stuff Sella makes."
"What happened in the Wizards' Quarter yesterday?" Emmis asked. "Did you get your question answered?"
Lar shook his head. "No. Kolar's spell just made a… a nothing, a mess."
"Swirls, he called it. But what about Imrinira?"
Lar set down his mug and turned up a palm. "She couldn't help much," he said. "She tried a few things. Mostly the Spell of the Eighth Sphere."
"What's that do?"
"It makes runes appear in a black crystal sphere," Lar said. "But it can only answer yes-or-no questions, and not all of those. It did tell us that strong magic was interfering with Fendel's Divination, that it wasn't anything Kolar did wrong, but any time we tried to ask it a question about… about the hum itself, rather than about Kolar's spell, the reply was so hazy we couldn't read it. The magic was interfering again."
"Ah."
"So we went to see Imrinira's friend Zindrй, to see whether witchcraft might work where wizardry didn't. They have an agreement – when Imrinira needs witchcraft she goes to Zindrй, and when Zindrй needs wizardry she goes to Imrinira. But Zindrй couldn't do anything with this, so she took us to Sella, who was expecting us. She said that witchcraft wasn't going to help very much, but that other magicians could answer all my questions, and some of them were wizards – I just had to ask the right people the right questions. But then she called her apprentice in and whispered to her, and said that you would be along in a moment, and then you were, and you know the rest."
"Oh." Emmis considered this for a moment. "So what did Imrinira say, when Sella said that magicians could answer your questions?"
"She said that she couldn't, but that if the interference came from a protective spell of some kind, then the wizard who cast it could probably tell me why it's there."
"Does it come from a protective spell?"
"I don't know." Lar picked his mug up again. "I didn't get a chance to ask her about that."
"So are you going to go back and ask more questions?"
"Not right away," Lar said. He sipped tea. "I need to think about what questions to ask. And I need to write that protocol."
Emmis nodded.
"Besides, my first trip to the Wizards' Quarter got assassins sent to kill me," Lar added. "Who knows what will happen if I keep going back?"
"What more can happen?" Emmis asked. "They're already trying to kill you."
"They might do a better job of it."
"How?"
"Hire magicians. Or Demerchan."
"Perhaps you should get some protective spells of your own," Emmis suggested. "Talk to a theurgist about that door shrine – it might be useful."
"It might. But first I need to write my letter to Lord Ildirin."
Emmis sighed. "Please yourself. I suppose I could see about buying some decent furniture while you do that, and I do need more clothes."
"You left yours at that i
"Yes. So I'm sure they're long gone."
"Not necessarily. Might the i
Emmis frowned. "I doubt it," he said.
"I think you should go back and ask. I'd be interested in knowing just how quickly A
"I still can't believe she told me they were going to assassinate you!"
"Oh, they think everyone in Ethshar is a cold-hearted mercenary. I'm almost surprised she didn't try to hire you to kill me."
Emmis's mouth opened, then closed again.
"Really, people in the Small Kingdoms have no idea how a place like Ethshar can exist," Lar said. "It's too big for them to comprehend – the stories say there are a million people in Ethshar of the Spices alone! I don't think there's a one of the Small Kingdoms with more than thirty thousand people in it; the Empire of Vond might have a quarter of a million, at most. And there's all the magic here, and three overlords instead of a king or council…"
"People mind their own business," Emmis said. "It all works out."
"Yes, exactly! People mind their own business, so A
"But you're my business," Emmis said. "You pay me. You live here."
"But I have no family here, no co
Emmis stared at him, baffled. "So what?"
"You see? We think differently in the Small Kingdoms!"
"But you said she thought I wouldn't mind because I'm Ethsharitic!"
"Yes. She doesn't understand Ethshar. She sees that you people here don't have the family ties and hereditary positions and binding oaths that co
"Well, yes, of course," Emmis said. "That's their job, to guard the city and keep the peace."
"In Ashthasa, where A
"Barbarians," Emmis muttered under his breath.
Lar heard him, and smiled.
"They think you are barbarians, with your messy, disorganized way of doing things and your lack of a proper hereditary hierarchy."
"'They'? Not 'we'?"
"Oh, I know better than that. I might have never set foot in Ethshar a sixnight ago, but I'm not stupid. I've talked to Lord Sterren, and other travelers, and I know no place could be as big and rich and powerful as the Hegemony if it was really disorganized and barbaric."
"But this isn't obvious to everyone?"
"No, it isn't. You'd be surprised."
"Barbarians," Emmis said again.
"Different," Lar said. "And you should go back to the i
"Why does it matter where she found them?"
"It's a useful thing to know where one can hire assassins."
Emmis didn't like that; the clear implication was that Lar might want to hire a few himself. "Who were you thinking of assassinating?" he asked.