[Dragaera] Hawk

[Jerry Friedman via Dragaera]

Things I don't get about /Hawk/:

Vlad forgot to tell Khaavren to start proceedings if he's held captive.  The Council could hold him in some basement and make him write Khaavren periodic letters saying he's having a wonderful time.  He also forgot to leave his enemy a way of escape.  He's likely (though not certain) to die of old age while the Council members are still alive, and if that time approaches, they'll have no incentive to let him die naturally instead of killing him Morganti.  By the way, there could be an amusing plot where the Jhereg try to use whatever they can to keep Vlad from doing anything risky.


Vlad says in Chapter 16 that if the bad guys had tried to stop his heart and attack him with the knife at the same time, he'd have had problems.  So why didn't they?  Specifically, stop his heart or maybe better his breathing, not to kill him, but to make him too weak to block the knife.


What are the three Council members guilty of?  They haven't done anything except receive psychic messages to watch Vlad listen in on them.  They certainly haven't done anything for gain or anything that puts Imperial security at risk (yet).

How does the Council's situation here differ from the one in /Jhereg/?  There, the Council was willing to start a "war" that would have gotten a lot of them killed rather than let Mellar live a few more /days/.  Here, they're willing to let Vlad live indefinitely rather than /risk/ that the Justicers will lash three of them and confiscate a lot of money.


Complicated one: If Vlad gets killed, how can Khaavren get the Council members convicted, assuming they've committed a crime?  As far as I can tell, Khaavren has no evidence except Vlad's account of what he was planning, and Vlad won't be able to testify.  Could the Justicers compel the suspects to testify under the Orb?  If so, how, by keeping them in prison till they do?  They might prefer prison to that mass confiscation.  Or by torture?  And if they can be compelled to testify, why couldn't Count Szurke always have gotten them compelled to testify about the price on his head?  Maybe they never said, "We'll put a bounty on him", but the Justicers could ask, "If someone had destroyed Count Szurke's soul, would that person have received money?  From what funds?  Who would have authorized the payment?" etc.

Incidentally, Vlad murdered Terion without being caught by the Jhereg.  Couldn't someone in the Right Hand as well as the Left murder Vlad, not for the bounty but for revenge against the Demon, Poletra, or Dyann, or to create a vacancy at the top?  If word gets out, couldn't someone outside the Jhereg murder Vlad for revenge against the Jhereg?  Would you sell a life-insurance policy to the bodyguards and sorcerers who know the deal?  I think both Vlad and the Council members have to worry about this as well as about the Left Hand in some future book.

Jerry Friedman