“The Desecrator”, by Steven Brust, is a short story available for $0.99 from Amazon as a “Tor Original”. I grabbed it because I’m a Brust fan, and because it’s set in the world of Brust’s Vlad Taltos series, which I like a whole lot.

Bottom line up front: if you’re not familiar with the Vlad Taltos series, this is not the place to start. Instead, go buy a copy of Jhereg and read it. The rest of this post will be inside baseball, and you might as well skip it. If you’re a fan of the series, it’s worth the $0.99.

Some few books ago, Brust introduced a new character, a young Dzurlord that Sethra Lavode is training up as the first of a new corps of Lavodes. (Vlad has a lengthy dinner with him at Valabar’s in Dzur.) Said character wields a Great Weapon, one that Vlad hadn’t previously heard of.

In this story we get to hear how he gets it. Plus we get to find out just what it is that Vlad’s friend Daymar the Hawklord does to keep himself busy.

Fun stuff; I read it to Jane and she was laughing almost continuously. Of course, she’s heard the entire rest of the series as well.