Anywhen Read Online Free Page A

. . (well sung, excellence) . . . did you know that the Guild has murdered your half-sister?"
    Da-Ud dropped the imitation Charioteer harp with a noise like a spring-driven toy coming unwound.
    "Jillith? But she was only a playwoman! Why, in Gro's name—
    Then Da-Ud caught himself and stared at Simon with sudden, belated suspicion. Simon looked back, waiting.
    "Who told you that? Damn you—are you a Torturer? I'm not—I've done nothing to merit- -
    "I'm not a Torturer, and nobody told me," Simon said. "She died in my bed, as a warning to me."
    He removed his clasp from under the shoulder of his cloak and clicked it. The little machine flowered briefly into a dazzling actinic glare, and then closed again. While Da-Ud was still covering his streaming eyes, Simon said softly:
    "I am the Traitor-in-Chief of High Earth."
    It was not the flash of the badge that was dazzling Da-Ud now. He lowered his hands. His whole narrow body was trembling with hate and eagerness.
    "What—what do you want of me, excellence? I have nothing to sell but the Rood-Prince . . . and a poor stick he is. Surely you would not sell me High Earth; I am a poor stick myself."
    "I would sell you High Earth for twenty riyals."
    "You mock met"
    "No, Da-Ud. I came here to deal with the Guild, but they killed Jillith—and that, as far as I'm concerned, disqualified them from being treated as civilized professionals, or as human beings at all. She was pleasant and intelligent, and I was fond of her—and besides, while I'm perfectly willing to kill under some conditions, I don't hold with throwing away an innocent life for some footling dramatic gesture."
    "I wholly agree," Da-Ud said. His indignation seemed to be at least half real. "But what will you do? What can you do?"
    "I have to fulfil my mission, any way short of my own death—if I die, nobody will be left to get it done. But I'd most dearly love to cheat, dismay, disgrace the Guild in the process, if it could possibly be managed. I'll need your help. If we live through it, I'll see to it that you'll turn a profit, too; money isn't my first goal here, or even my second now."
    "I'll tackle it," Da-Ud said at once, though he was obviously apprehensive, as was only sensible. "What, precisely, do you propose?"
    "First of all, I'll supply you with papers indicating that I've sold you a part—not all—of the major thing I have to sell, which gives any man who holds it a lever in the State Ministry of High Earth. They show that High Earth has been conspiring against several major powers, all human, for purposes of gaining altitude with the Green Exarch. They won't tell you precisely which worlds, but there will be sufficient information there so that the Exarchy would pay a heavy purse for them—and High Earth, an even heavier one to get them back. It will be your understanding that the missing information is also for sale, but you haven't got the price."
    "Suppose the Guild doesn't believe that?"
    "They'll never believe—excuse me, I must be blunt—that you could have afforded the whole thing; they'll know I sold you this much of it only because I have a grudge, and you can tell them so—though I wouldn't expose the nature of the grudge, if I were you. Were you unknown to them, they might assume that you were me in disguise, but luckily they know you, and, ah, probably tend rather to underestimate you."
    "Kindly put," Da-Ud said with a grin. "But that won't prevent them from assuming that I know your whereabouts, or have some way of reaching you. They'll interrogate for that, and of course I'll tell them. I know them, too; it would be impossible not to, and I prefer to save myself needless pain."
    "Of course—don't risk interrogation at all, tell them you want to sell me out, as well as the secret. That will make sense to them, and I think they must have rules against interrogating a member who offers to sell; most Traitors' Guilds do."
    "True, but they'll observe them only so long as they believe me;