The Teckla were revolting...

I'd always known they were. Teckla were lazy, stupid, cowardly peasants. Revolting. Old joke. But now they were revolting against the Empire. New joke.

And a Jhereg crime lord, feeling the pinch, was popping the rebels. No joke.

But the real joke? I was protecting them. Me. Lord Vlad Taltos -- loyal grandson, loving husband. Jhereg. Sorcerer. Assassin. Everything the rabble hated. Not that I craved wet-nursing a mob of slogan-slobbering, doomed radical loonies, all of whom wanted me dead. Particularly since my royal peers, all of House Jhereg, also wanted me dead...