Dragon (Vlad Taltos) by Steven Brust

stairs; these were straight and wide, and reached a landing that swept back in an elegant curve before straightening again. At the top was another hallway; this one I’d never seen before. It was also wide, and it curved gently. Teldra opened a door and gestured for me to precede her. I stepped onto a very narrow circular stairway; the stairs were made of iron and they went up a long way. The door closed behind me. I looked back. Teldra had not followed.
    “Maybe it’s a trap,” said Loiosh.
    “That isn’t as funny as you think it is.”
    The stairwell was so narrow I nearly had to ascend sideways, and my shoulder kept rubbing against stonework. The metal rail was cold against my hand. There were a lot of stairs. It flashed through my mind that we were getting pretty high up, and then I almost laughed when I realized that we’d started about a mile up in the air, so this climb didn’t change much.
    At last we reached the top, where there was a thick, black door. I stood outside it like an idiot for a minute, trying to decide what to do, then I clapped.
    “Come in,” said Morrolan.
    I opened the door. It creaked melodramatically. I wouldn’t put it past Morrolan to have purposely installed a door that would creak melodramatically.
    I was in a round room—about as big around as my flat. The lighting was provided by a pair of half-shuttered lanterns, which gave less light than whatever had lit the staircase on the way up, which meant that I wouldn’t be able to see much until my eyes adjusted. I suddenly remembered, from the courtyard, seeing a single tower atop Castle Black. That must be where we were.
    “Brilliant, Boss.”
    “Shut up, Loiosh.”
    “Notice the window, Boss?”
    “It’s the only thing I can see.”
    “How come it’s night out past the window, and day when we walked up here?”
    “I’ve been wondering the same thing.”
    “That’s creepy.”
    “Yes, it is.”
    My eyes began to adjust. There wasn’t much to see, just a low table and a couple of wooden chests. There were curtains all around the tower, and a set of curtains pulled aside from the window; hence there were windows all around the tower, several of them. At least six. Fewer than seventeen, which was both a relief and oddly disconcerting.
    “Boss, when we saw the tower from below, were there any windows?”
    “No.”
    “I hadn’t thought so.”
    I also noticed that Morrolan was wearing his sword. Since Morrolan wasn’t accustomed to walking around his home armed, there had to be an explanation. I wasn’t looking forward to it. Especially because “armed” in this case meant Blackwand, one of the seventeen Great Weapons. Its presence did nothing to make me feel better.
    He said, “Welcome to the Tower, Vlad.”
    “Thank you.”
    “There are very few permitted up here.”
    “Okay. Would you mind explaining the window?”
    “I don’t believe you have had the training necessary to understand.”
    “You’re probably right.”
    “What is important, however, is that I can sometimes make the windows look upon what I wish, and that I can then travel to those places. This can be useful in bringing me to places where I do not have a sufficient mental grasp to teleport, or to a place which lies beyond the confines of what we consider ‘the world.’”
    “Handy thing to have around. Do you know any place that sells them?”
    “And, of course, I can bring anyone I wish with me.”
    “Uh … I’m not sure I like where this conversation is heading.”
    “I have been attempting to solve the problem of determining exactly what Fornia took from that room, and the related problem of why I failed to notice anything significant about it.”
    “That’s good, Morrolan. A nice mental puzzle will distract you from—”
    “Regard the window, Vlad.”
    “Do I have to?”
    But I did, and it was no longer quite black, but had become somewhat grey. A closer look revealed a certain reddish hue amid the grey. And then, near the top,