On Sat, 8 Mar 2003 Gaertk at aol.com wrote: > David Silberstein <davids at kithrup.com> writes: > > > not because he was the "best". And Vlad's assessment of > > Mario being the "best" may not be 100% accurate. And > > Istvan may have simply been the one that accepted the > > contract on Vlad, after better assassins refused for > > various reasons. > > I don't think that's how its working in Vlad's case. I think > its a matter of the Council giving lots of money to whoever > shows up with Vlad's head. Istvan saw an opportunity, and > took it. Ditto for Stony (unless you want to name him one of > the best). According to several books (well, _Jhereg_ and _Yendi_ at least) it's the way of things that one assassin is assigned per job. I think this was presented as a measure to avoid interference. (Which wouldn't necessarily be at issue here, admittedly.) And perhaps this indicates Dragaeran patience relative to Easterners. Now that I think of it, it's rather odd that Loraan and Istvan would work together - did L call up the Jhereg and ask for help? Seems unlikely. > > Vlad himself probably isn't even in the top rank (though he > may deserve it). IIRC, we're told that the Sword and the > Dagger weren't the best, and they were too expensive for > Vlad, indicating that his fees are much lower. AFB but I think tSaD are referred to as among the most feared workers in the House. Maybe Vlad can't afford himself - as is discussed in _Teckla_, he's not in it for the money. (Aside - there's a sly moment in _Orca_ where Kiera says she forgot how rich Vlad is - referring to the price on Mellar's head, I imagine - but isn't he actually not that well off, having used the bulk of the money [50k/65k] to buy South Adrilahnka?) Anyway, see elsewhere in the thread for evidence that Vlad is in fact front-line.