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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My thanks to Reesa Brown and Neil Gaiman for launching this one, and to Anne Gray for handling so many irritating details so I could work on it. Robert Sloan created much of the background of what became Dragaera, for which I am, as always, grateful. Thank you to Bethani at Twin Peaks, Round Rock, for keeping me supplied with coffee while I worked on this one. I very much appreciate the lessons in tournament poker from Adam “Hatfield13” Stemple and Chris “Pokerfox” Wallace.

Prologue

Sethra greeted me with the words, “There’s someone I’d like you to meet, Vlad. ” I had expected something more like, “What are you doing here?” as I’d shown up at Dzur Mountain without any advance warning. But then, if Sethra Lavode had been accustomed to doing the expected, she wouldn’t have been Sethra Lavode.

I had been visiting my friend Morrolan, who had been kind enough to teleport me to Dzur Mountain, and after a long climb up a wide and tiring staircase I had found her in a library, reading a book that looked like it must have weighed ten pounds.

My familiar noticed it as well. “It’s not a book, Boss. It’s a weapon. It lands on you, and that’s it. ”

“I think you’re right. ”

I was torn between curiosity about this person she wanted me to meet, and the business that had brought me. She asked if I wanted wine, and I did, and her servant, a strange, twitchy old guy named Tukko, thumped a bottle and a glass down in front of a chair. I sat and drank and said, “Who?”

“An Easterner. ”

“From?”

“Far from here. ”

“All the Eastern kingdoms are—”

“Very far. He doesn’t speak any language you’ve ever heard before. ”

“But you have?”

“I hadn’t either, but I learned. ”

“How?”

“The Necromancer taught me. Once you’ve learned a few languages, the others come easy. I’m working on teaching him ours, but it’s slow going. ”

“How’d you meet him?”

“The Necromancer introduced us. ”

“Well. Now I’m intrigued.

“You were intrigued when I didn’t ask what brought you here. ”

“All right, now I’m more intrigued. ”

“What did bring you here?”

“Now that I’m out of the army, I thought we could swap war stories. ”

She smiled and waited.

“Okay,” I said. “It’s this. ” I opened my pouch, found the object, and held it out for her to inspect.

“My,” she said. “Where did you get it?”

“That’s a long story. What is it?”

“I’m not sure. It’s interesting, certainly. ”

“Who goes first?”

“Up to you. ”

“This guy you want me to meet—what’s the deal? He have a job for me?”

“Sort of. Not your usual kind. ”

“By my usual kind, I assume you refer to my perfectly legitimate herb shop?”

“Yes. Not that. ”

“What then?”

“He wants you to talk. ”

“About what?”

“Everything. Everything you do, legal and illegal. ”

I studied her. She looked serious. “Sethra, if I ever did something illegal—which of course I never have—why would I be so stupid as to talk about it?”

“Reason one: There is a lot of money in it. Reason two: There may, from time to time, be other things in it for you—useful trinkets. Reason three: Because I tell you, on my honor, that nothing you say will ever be heard by anyone who can do anything to you. ”