by Amber Morant
Tosh and the shadow locked eyes for a moment before the shadow turned away again, her eyes focused on her drink. "You sure she is out to kill you? She looks like she is enjoying herself here."
"Trust me, if it wasn't for my position, I probably could have been made a master in the guild. She's been following me since I left the ren zhe."
The waitress returned, dropping off two clear sodas with a piece of cotton candy stuck inside of it. "Two Shirley temples."
Anjuu nodded and held her arm out so the waitress could scan her wrist and take the payment.
"Thanks, you didn't have to pay for me."
"I'm doing it because I need you here to figure out the damn stone." Anjuu pushed the cotton candy inside the glass and watched it dissolve. Tosh followed suit and they enjoyed their drink in silence, both watching the shadow in case she made any movements.
Another round of the virgin Shirley temples came over and still the shadow seemed to be sipping at her own drink. Those who's wrists were hurting from wrestling had long since left, leaving half of the bar still filled but far less loud than it had been before. Now that there were spots empty, Tosh could see on the other side of the bar a woman dressed in a bikini, dancing around on a small stage that was elevated a few feet above the men. He could feel the music pounding through his body but couldn’t hear it over the few conversations that were still going on. He continued to watch as the woman bent down and slid across a pole. He was mesmerized by her movements, his mind replacing the woman on stage with the half drow he had seen earlier.
Anjuu flicked his hand, bringing his attention back to the table. "What was that for?"
Anjuu didn't answer. Instead, she lifted her balaclava back up and pointed over to the shadow. She was no longer sitting at her table but walking over to them. Tosh could see a thin blade sticking out from the woman's sleeve. He gulped, realizing what trouble he had escaped with Azrael was now bigger with his involvement with the assassin guild. A large crowd bustled out of the bar, separating the drow across the room from himself and Anjuu. Before the crowd finished walking out, Anjuu grabbed ahold of his collar and pulled him up.
"Come on, let's go."
"But I thought you were trying to kill her?"
"Shut up, do you want others to hear you? God, now I know why scholars are in the quarry now. You all are so idiotic."
They followed the crowd out of the bar before she pulled him around the building and through a small alley. The only thing back there was an oversized dumpster that smelled like it had never been properly cleaned. In the center was a mask on the ground. It was pure white with small slits where the eyes should be. Across the cheeks were three thin lines on each side, resembling whiskers. Anjuu picked it up and tied the strings together so it hid her face. The eerie animalistic nature of the mask sent shiver down Tosh's spine.
"I see you've brought me a gift from the master's?" Anjuu said aloud.
Tosh looked around to see who Anjuu was talking to. At first, he couldn't see anyone until the shadow from earlier slipped out from behind the dumpster. She also worse a white animalistic mask, hers had a circle in the center of the eyes. "I didn't feel it right to kill you without your final death mask."
"It is appreciated. Now, you can either return to the guild and say you failed your mission, or I can kill you."
The shadow pulled out the knife that was hidden in her sleeve, so it was now extended in her hand. The same blade she had flashed at them earlier. "I tell them I fail, I die anyways. I'd rather kill you and bring glory back to our guild."
The two paced in a circle, both on opposite sides staring down one another. Tosh stepped back. If this fight did occur in front of him, he didn't want to be involved. Anjuu pulled out her own dagger from a compartment in her sleeve as well. Tosh gulped, wondering how many weapons both had hidden on them. If Anjuu died, it was obvious he would be killed and if he ran there may be others waiting to kill him in her stead. There was no going back and Hartiel was fast asleep inside of his pocket, unaware of the situation happening.
Anjuu took the first move and dived toward the shadow. She was flipped over the shadow's shoulder and crashed against the wall. She rebounded. Their blade connected letting out a soft clink as metal hit metal. Their strikes continued at a rapid rate. Tosh couldn't follow where one hit ended and another counter began. Both moved in a fluid motion, like a dance. Just one misstep and the performance would be over for one of them. The shadow spun to the right and pushed Anjuu forward. Her blade made impact on Anjuu's shoulder but deflected against something hard.
"I still have plenty of gear to protect me. Do you?" Anjuu laughed as she fell to the ground from the impact. She spun her leg in a quarter circle. Tosh could see something silver shoot from Anjuu's boot before it sliced open the shadow's leg.
The shadow let out a loud cry of pain and fell to the ground. "Don't underestimate me next time. You didn't deserve to become a shadow." She pulled out a short sword and held it against the shadow's neck. Tosh couldn't see the shadow's face but could hear a soft sobbing from underneath the mask. He imagined she was begging for her life, but there was no reason he would save her. Before his mind could really process anything though, Anjuu sliced the short sword across the shadows neck, ending the drow's life.
Blood splattered across the ground, coating Anjuu's boots and the short sword she held in her hand. Tosh tried to look away but couldn’t. He had never seen anyone murdered before—in cold blood—and by someone he had just promised to help. Not just murdered in cold blood, but by the person he was no promised to help. Anjuu bent down and rummaged inside of the shadow's pants pocket. She pulled out a small grey stone with a symbol on it. Tosh recognized it as one of the runes from an older language before Narishma had formed. In the past, it was a simple run for death, but now it held so much more meaning for a shadow with an assassination contract. She tossed it over to Tosh and kicked the limp body off to the side.
"We should get out of here, that body is going to start to smell soon and I don't want to deal with the cleanup.
Tosh remained silent, looking down at the stone. It was cold despite being inside of the dead woman's pocket. All he would need would be some earth-based magic and he could pull the message out without any problems. Anjuu didn't stand still, however, and walked past Tosh and onto the main streets. She slid her short sword into a sheath behind her back and turned down the corner. "I have a room rented a few blocks away. We can go there and you can decipher the message. After that. Do whatever it is you need to do. Just don't do anything dumb. I don't need you handing a dragon egg over to them anytime soon."
Tosh didn't respond. His mind was still focused on the stone in his hands. He wondered if Devata was mistaken and the woman in his vision wasn't the one to possess the egg. He remembered the drow that looked like the queen in many aspects and there were the raven wings. The assassin from before didn’t have them, but it was possible they just meant a member of the shadows. Tosh looked over at Anjuu in front of him and wondered if she was the one chosen but shook his head. He needed to know for certain and Devata hadn’t given him any more clues. Whomever it was for, he needed to figure it out. There was no way it would be the drow in front of him. She was filled with too much chaos and already she had shown she didn't care for the scholars in the quarry. After he was done with the stone and could leave Anjuu, he would need to find one of Devata's root systems and try to communicate with the tree. There had to be something he was missing.
They turned another block and arrived at a building that looked older than most of the other's in the area. Almost all the windows were boarded up. The ones that weren't had large holes. Despite this, Tosh could see light inside of the rooms with people walking around inside. "This is where you're staying?"
"It's cozy, but cheap. My access to the queen's bank has been revoked so I've been forced to use my own money in the meantime. The master of coin told me that it's probably a glitch and he should have my access by the end of the we
ek." She waved her hand in the air. "That's none of your concern. You're just here to do what I asked you to do and leave."
Tosh gulped and looked up at the large run-down building. He imagined there had been far more murders the building had seen than even the ex-shadow in front of him. She claimed to work for the queen, but he had no idea if this was true or something she just added to make him fear her more. It wasn't necessary. He had seen what she was capable of. He just needed to get this message for her, and he could return to his own mission and leave her to do whatever someone that worked for the queen did in their spare time.
There were no elevators inside, only a long set of stairs that curled itself on the outside of the building to grant access to different floors. Tosh was thankful Anjuu was only on the third floor. It was getting too late at night and his adrenaline from earlier was finally wear off. He could feel the pain in his joints from the climb and the fear from seeing someone die in front of him seeped into his bones. Inside her room was a small bed with a moth-eaten sheet and a desk with a few papers on them. Attached to the wall was a photo of the queen. She seemed softer in the photo compared to everything he had ever seen of her inside the college and quarry. If that was his first vision of the queen, he would have imagined her as someone with a kind heart and gentle to speak with, instead he knew the truth behind the false exterior.
"So?" Anjuu closed the door behind them and sat on the floor cross legged. "Get to pulling the message out. I'd like to sleep eventually tonight."
Tosh sat across from Anjuu and nodded. "Here goes."
He focused on the stone in his palm. He could feel the energy inside of it pulsating. It was different than Hartiel's energy as it didn't possess the light energy that the sprite held but something more ethereal. He couldn't quiet touch it, but it felt like smoke and water all at the same time. Tosh tugged more at the energy inside the stone, the exhaustion over coming him. He had to fight it off. Just one more pull and the stone would reveal its message.
"Kalio!" Anjuu gasped.
Tosh opened his eyes and saw, standing atop the stone, was a small, distorted hologram of the queen.
The Queen stared in front of her, ignoring the Anjuu and Tosh. He quickly realized it was a recording of some sort. "Anjuu is now an enemy of Narishma. I do not want her returned alive to me. Kill her on sight. She has betrayed the crown. Anyone who kills her with gain rank within my castle. Do it efficiently and quickly, and you will live a life of luxury for yourself and your grandchildren."
Anjuu continued to stare at the rotating hologram of the queen as it repeated the mission of her assassination. Her eyes welled up with tears, but she wiped them before they fell to her cheeks. After the second repeat of the message, Tosh disconnected himself from the stone and handed it back to Anjuu. "I'm sorry. I'm sure that's not the message you wanted to receive. You're not...planning on killing me for this are you?"
Anjuu shook her head. "No, not your fault. There must be a reason behind this. Someone lying to her. I didn't betray her. There has to be something else to this." She grasped the stone and stood up. "I need to get some air. You can stay the night here. It will be safer than walking the streets right now."
Nineteen
It was cold outside. The sharp chill of the air against her skin made her regret walking outside now. The stone in her hand sent too many questions in her mind to stay near someone she barely knew. If the stone was right, the queen believed she had betrayed the crown. The sound of bickering from the room below her broke her thoughts. Simple arguments of the couple still living in a dump like this place. She laughed, wishing her life and complications were as simple as her next bed. She could fight off all the shadows as much as she could, but if such a mission was given by the queen, not even the masters would refuse to take on the offer. She had to seek help elsewhere.
Anjuu walked back inside and saw the scholar curled up in a corner. She could see a faint light inside of his pocket but shrugged it off, thinking it was just some left over magic the scholar was still using. Kalio had told her the scholars were a strange group that controlled the elements through contracts with sprites. However, they never fought in the war against her nor for her, instead choosing to hide inside of the college where they continued to be soft. She had made many of them “field researchers.” This one had been one of them as she saw the scar on his cheek from when he was branded.
"Must have hurt, living a life of luxury, and now being stuck out here. Wonder what your purpose really is?" She brushed a piece of his hair out of his face. "Well, I won't bring you anymore trouble. You'll find who you need to take that egg too I'm sure and do what you need to do." She stood back up and gathered the scraps of paper off the desk and the photo of Kalio off the wall. "I promised to keep you safe. And that's exactly what I'll do."
She opened the door back up to the outside and stepped out. If she stayed in the room, other shadows would start to see him with her, and he would be added as a target. Anything to get her to bring herself down they would take. She put her glasses on, seeing the different contacts scrolling across the side. "The ren zhe have no form of technology I can use to call them right now. They've moved since I left them too. No doubt in some random place in Narishma now travelling around like they always do."
Her eyes shifted across the screen to reveal a large map with different points, indicating who was known allies to the crown. There was a small point where the cait shidhe lived that was questionable but too far away to reach in one day. Her eyes finally rested on a small town just south of the Dragon's Pass. It didn't have a specific label of ally or enemy, but it was known to not have been attacked by the rebels yet. For just dumb luck or another hangout for the rebels she wasn't sure. For now, as the queen's target, she was on their side.
A loud roar from above pulled Anjuu’s attention away from her map and she shut the program down to look up. High above, blocking out so many of the stars was what appeared to be a red dragon. Anjuu laughed to herself. The last time she had seen Azrael on his dragon, he had helped her in leaving the capital. Now he was above her and an omen of her demise.
"Looks like the queen may have sent the keres out to look for me too. No matter, I'm leaving now," she muttered and clambered down the steps to the ground.
Her bike was covered in mud from the long trip it had taken. She wiped the handles and sat down. Once the chaos subsided, her bike would need a good cleaning and tuning up.
The roads were quiet for the most part, only seeing one or two cars driving the opposite direction. She opened her map back up on her glasses. The town she was targeting was less than an hour away. If she stayed on the roads and didn’t bring any attention to herself, she hoped Azrael wouldn't notice her and he would simply fly off elsewhere.
The small town was a lot less than Anjuu had expected. Only one main street ran through the entire town and she drove through it and past the city within seconds. Anjuu had to turn back around and realized most of the side streets were dead ends or led to a few streets that also had no exits back onto the main roads.
"No way the rebels chose this place," she mumbled, looking for any of the buildings having the phrase of tavern or inn to stay the night at. "Guess I'll be sleeping outside again."
She pulled her bike over to a small restaurant's parking lot and shut everything down. For now, she would just stay next to the building and sleep until the sun rose and the town woke up. Even if there were any rebels, her body was exhausted and there was no way she could withstand another fight.
What she hadn't presented to the scholar earlier was that the fight had almost cost her life. A misstep that could have killed her just barely missed and hit armor plates scattered across her body. If the shadow had been more careful, it would have meant death for her. Even now, her heart still pounded from the fact that she almost died.
The cold stone wall helped her muscles relax. She focused on meditations to fall asleep. A waterfall that flowed across her body released all of the hidden te
nsion within her. Any thought that came to her mind washed away with the metaphysical water. Before her relaxing shower reached her feet, Anjuu fell into a dreamless sleep.
"What do you think it means?"
"Shut up, they told us to just watch her. Not wake her up."
Anjuu stirred from her sleep and snapped her eyes open. The sun was already past the horizon and had reached a late morning position. She looked over and saw two children sitting crossed legged and staring at her. Both appeared to be only teenagers, but something about their face seemed off. Anjuu grabbed for her knives and froze as she realized all her weapons were missing.
"Did you really think we would let you keep your weapons?” the boy asked, his smile stretching across his face. "A shadow knows better than to let their enemy wake up with weapons attached."
The girl interrupted him and leaned forward so she was facing the boy. "Shush, you're not a shadow, so stop acting like one."
"I could have if—"
"No, you're broken, stop acting like you are something more."
The boy grunted and crossed his arms. Both wore a black shirt with camouflage pattern pants. Even being different genders, the two were almost identical outside of the more feminine features and long hair of the one.
"Look, we're here. She's here. The Queen has declared her an enemy. That's all that matters, and she can't kill us."
Anjuu let out a laugh at the last statement. "If you think a shadow needs weapons to kill, then you didn't study our guild much." She stood up and stretched out her muscles. The cold had felt amazing when she fell asleep, now her body was regretting it quickly. "Look, this is all fun and games. But I need my weapons back now if you don't mind."
The twins stood up and the boy shrugged his shoulders. "No can do. Our leader took your weapons with her while you were sleeping." He paused, seeing the anger building in Anjuu’s face from simple amusement to rage. "If you want, we can take you to her."