Liar's Island: A Novel by Tim Pratt

ice.”
    â€œOh, good. I’m glad you can admit that. I didn’t want to say anything, because I know your feelings are delicate.” Hrym’s voice was muffled but perfectly comprehensible.
    Rodrick frowned and put his hand on Hrym’s hilt, realizing something. “Wait. You never got an amulet to let you understand the languages these people are speaking, or to make them understand yours. How are you communicating?”
    â€œHardly anyone talks to me anyway , it’s very rude, but as for how … well, they make as much sense to me as any of you humanoid creatures do, and I suppose I can make myself understood. I must have picked up their tongue somewhere.” Hrym had potent magical properties of absorption—he’d gained his ice powers by stealing them, over the course of long years, from an ice dragon, and had picked up a demonic taint after a much shorter period of time in proximity to a demon lord, so maybe at some point he’d soaked up other abilities as well. His memory was fragmented, though perhaps not so badly as he claimed, and there were depths in Hrym that were hidden from Rodrick, and possibly even from Hrym himself.
    â€œHmm. You’re full of surprises, but I’m glad I don’t have to play translator for you. Speaking of voices, though, did you hear that servant? He could sing the soprano part in a choir.”
    â€œHe’s a eunuch, Rodrick.”
    Rodrick blinked. “What, you mean someone cut his … particulars … off?”
    Hrym snickered—not the creepy demonic titter, but his more usual crass indication of amusement. “You male humanoids are so attached to your reproductive organs. Even you, though as far as I can tell you never have any intention of reproducing, at least not intentionally.”
    â€œI enjoy going through the motions , though,” Rodrick said. “Why would they unman the man?”
    â€œI don’t know much about the Vudrani, but I know it’s not uncommon in their culture to do that to servants. Cut off that part of a boy before he starts to become a man, and he’s made more reliable in various ways, or so it’s generally believed. Do you always think with your head, Rodrick, or do other parts of you sometimes make the decisions?”
    â€œI have made some choices based on suggestions from my lower regions that, in retrospect, were unwise. Cutting them off seems a bit extreme, though.”
    â€œHumanoid carnal relations are baffling and disgusting to me, of course, but I gather some men in power feel better if their women are attended by men who can’t, ah, compete with their masters in certain respects.”
    Rodrick made a disgusted face. “I suppose it makes a sick sort of sense. I’ve never demanded faithfulness from any woman, myself. It’s true I’m frequently dishonest, but asking for that would be downright hypocritical. It’s not as if the eunuchs have their tongues and fingers removed, though, so it seems a half-measure at best … I’d worry about a eunuch revolution, personally. I can’t think of many things that would make me more likely to go into a frenzy and try to kill someone than having those cut off.”
    â€œDo the cutting early enough and they don’t know what they’re missing,” Hrym said.
    â€œPoor bastards. I mustn’t tell them what they’re missing. There’s nothing sadder than a weeping servant.”
    He slid Hrym back into the scabbard and strode out into the hall, toward destiny—or, at the very least, a free meal.

9
    The Thakur’s Proposal
    The servants, moving fast without ever exactly running, led Rodrick through the palace to yet another gorgeous hall of marble and columns, this one full of long tables made from exotic (by Inner Sea standards, anyway) wood, with chairs carved so delicately they seemed constructed of lace. There were scores of people in the