Rise of the Legion

by Chloe Cullen

  Romy cleared her throat, breaking through the tension. “So, Cori. How is it working with the Princess again?” she asked in her quiet voice.

  Cori couldn’t stop the grin spreading across her face. “Brilliant. She’s such a beautiful soul. I love hanging out with her.”

  “That’s not your job, though, is it?” Soraya asked innocently, still pulling her bread apart as though she were picturing Cori’s face.

  Cori looked across at her, patience wearing thin. “What?”

  Soraya shifted in her seat and looked to Thoren for a moment. “Well, you’re not there to ‘hang out’ with her. You’re there to protect her.”

  “That’s implied,” Thoren said, a little coldly.

  “Exactly,” Cori agreed, “anyway, Romy – as I was saying… I love it. It’s a great feeling to be chosen by the King and Queen themselves.”

  Romy smiled, the scars on her face stretching with the movement. “I’m so glad for you.”

  “Thanks,” Cori said with a real smile, choosing to ignore the snide look on Soraya’s face and instead directed her next question to Thoren. “I forgot to ask, did Sam find you yesterday?”

  Thoren smiled sadly. “Yeah, he did.”

  “He hero-worships you, it’s so cute,” Cori said with a laugh. She could tell by the look on his face that as much as Sam worships Thoren, that he also cared for the younger Legionnaire. There was a softness on Thoren’s face that was hard to come by.

  “He’s a good kid,” Thoren said, pushing the food around his plate, “I hope it all goes well for him in Damerdale.”

  “He’s very good,” Romy said, “Sam shadowed me for a while. He was extremely attentive, and a very capable fighter. He will do well.”

  Thoren nodded his agreement, then stood from the table, his food barely touched. “I’m done here. Cori, you ready for patrol?”

  Cori had to actively shake off the squeezing sensation she felt in her stomach muscles when Thoren looked at her, so she nodded and stood as well. When they had parted ways early that morning in the training hall, she’d agreed to patrol with him tonight seeing as it was her night off from the Palace.

  They started away from the table and Cori called her goodbyes as she went. “See you later guys.”

  Romy said good night with a quiet smile, but Soraya remained silent as Cori followed Thoren out of the dining hall.

  As they walked down the front steps of the main building, Cori looked up at the stars, which were each so bright against the inky black sky.

  “The stars are so beautiful tonight,” she said.

  Thoren laughed quietly.

  “What?” she asked with a grin.

  “It’s just… you seem happy. That makes me happy,” he said in a soft voice.

  They passed underneath the statues and continued down the sloping front lawns.

  “I think… I am happy. Or I’m getting there,” Cori replied.

  “I’m glad.”

  They walked in comfortable silence for a while until they were walking up High street towards the Palace.

  “Do we have a route tonight?” Cori asked him.

  Thoren shook his head. “Not really, I figured we could walk some of the back alleys, keep our eyes out for any nonsense.”

  Cori nodded, and followed his lead as they made their way up the street. Every now and again, they would stop to talk to another Legionnaire and confirm that nothing of interest had happened yet.

  “Can I ask…” Thoren started and she looked over to him as they walked in unison, “what’s going on between you and Soraya?”

  Cori raised her brows innocently. “What do you mean?”

  Thoren huffed out a laugh. “You know what I mean. What you said to her earlier… and she seems to, well, not like you very much.”

  Cori scoffed. “Gee, I wonder why.” When she saw him looking confused, she had to shake her head at him. “She’s jealous, Thoren. So, she’s taking it out on me.”

  He opened his mouth before shutting it again, as though wanting to say something but deciding against it. Cori then realised what she was insinuating – that there was something here to be jealous about.

  She willed away a blush as Thoren cleared his throat.

  “What makes you think she’s taking it out on you?” Thoren finally said.

  Cori thought carefully about what she was about to say. “Yesterday, when Soraya saw us together by the statues, she made that excuse for me to find Gryffin just to get rid of me. When I found Gryffin later, he hadn’t asked to see me at all.”

  “That’s…” Thoren seemed to be searching for the right word to say. “Ridiculous.”

  Cori wasn’t sure what he was referring to as ridiculous. Soraya’s misdirection, or the fact that there was anything to be jealous about at all.

  “Yeah, it is,” Cori muttered, and focused back on her surroundings.

  “So…” Thorin said after a beat of silence, side-eyeing her, “what was that about earlier at dinner – what you said about Soraya?”

  Cori’s steps faltered a little as a laugh bubbled up her throat. “I know, it was probably not the best thing I could have come up with to get back at her.”

  Thoren shook his head, but there was a hint of a smile there. “I get it – but did it have to be so…”

  “Hilarious?” Cori supplied. Thoren reached out to nudge her playfully as his lips split into a grin, the corners of his eyes crinkling in the way she loved to see.

  “I was going to say personal,” he said.

  Cori sighed a little, but she was still smiling. “I know, it was completely juvenile. She just got under my skin I suppose.”

  “I’m sorry about Soraya,” Thoren said, a little gruffly, “I suppose I did used to spend a lot more time with her before you came back.”

  She looked to him again, a spark igniting in her chest at the thought of them together. “Oh?”

  He met her gaze, likely noting her change in tone. “Not like… that. We just hung out sometimes. Now I suppose I’m spending most of my time with you.”

  “Well, you were my best friend first,” she said, trying to inject some humour into the conversation.

  He sent her a half-grin as they continued their trek up High street. Cori felt as though their conversation was unfinished, but she didn’t know what to say to him. She felt strangely… nervous at the thought there could be, in fact, something between them that would warrant jealousy from someone else. It made her feel giddy, which was ludicrous.

  Eventually, they ended up nearing the alley where they had found the Legionnaires dead with the message from the Shadow Legion on the wall.

  Before they passed, Cori paused and stared down into the alley.

  “Everything okay?” Thoren asked from behind her.

  Cori looked into the darkness, and without a word, she walked into the alley until she stood at the dead end. Thoren followed her quietly.

  Cori looked at the darkened wall-face of the alley, the words that had been written there not that long ago had been scrubbed away, but remnants of it remained.

  “Was it blood?” Cori asked, her eyes still trained on the wall.

  “What?”

  She looked over at him. “Were the words there written in Legion blood?”

  Thoren held her gaze, his silver eyes stormy with emotion. “Yes, it was blood on the walls,” he answered, voice hard.

  Cori looked away from him to the wall again, feeling a sickness spreading through her belly. At her feet were where the Legion bodies had been sprawled out, laid there specifically to point at this wall, as if the crude message weren’t clear enough.

  In the darkness, Cori felt able to seethe in silence for the fallen warriors and wish that it were the Shadow Legion who were dead. She wanted to kill them all.

  “Cori,” Thoren whispered next to her, and when she turned her head to look at him, his face was turned upward, face a mask of concentration.

  “What is it?” she asked quietly.

&nb
sp; Thoren, still gazing upwards to the sky, placed a finger to his lips, asking her to stay silent. Then in the next moment he had grabbed her by the shoulders and was moving them both further into the darkness of the alleyway, pressing her tightly up against the wall.

  Cori stayed still and quiet, Thoren’s body flush with hers. She wasn’t sure when, but at some point, her hands had come up and were flattened against his chest in between them. She tried hard to not dwell on the feeling of hard muscle underneath her fingers.

  She was staring directly at his exposed throat as he craned his neck backward to look up the face of the wall. She could see the pace of his heartbeat at his throat which was quickening by the second.

  Thoren finally lowered his head and looked down at Cori. Against her will, she felt her own heart begin to race at the proximity. She silently cursed herself for being so distracted by his hands. One of them was cupped around her shoulder, while the other, warm and firm, was on her waist.

  He lowered his head further until his mouth was beside her ear. “There’s someone on the rooftops,” he whispered, his breath skittering over her skin, causing her to shiver beneath him.

  He hadn’t needed to say it. From the moment he had pushed them away from the exposed centre of the alleyway, she had guessed as much.

  She nodded her head once and knew that he would have felt the movement.

  He pulled his head back slightly to look down at her face again, and Cori didn’t know what he read in her expression, but she saw his silver eyes flash in the darkness, his lips parting. She tried very hard not to look at his mouth.

  Cori felt Thoren’s hand tightening at her waist, and then there was a small sound from above that tore their eyes away from each other.

  They both looked upwards in time to see a dark figure flying across the night sky, leaping between the buildings. Cori heard the person land on the opposite rooftop, a scuffle of feet and then the swish of clothing.

  Their eyes met one final time, bodies still pressed against each other.

  “Go,” Thoren whispered, before he leapt into action.

  They sprinted across the cobblestones and the moment they flew from the mouth of the alley, Thoren called out to a Legionnaire who stood across the street. “Sound the bells!”

  He didn’t wait for a response, and together they ran up the street, looking at each building they passed for clear access to the rooftops.

  “There!” Cori said, and even though she was a few steps behind Thoren, she still pointed to the ground level window with the balcony directly above it.

  Thoren had turned as she spoke, slowing his pace only slightly, which allowed Cori to race past him. She kept her speed and used the momentum to leap into the air at the precise moment. Her foot touched the edge of the window just enough so that she was able to push her body higher into the air. She reached out to grab the floor of the balcony and pulled herself up onto the edge. She gripped the railing with both hands and pushed herself upwards, flinging her legs over the side until she stood firmly atop the balcony.

  She only looked down for a moment, seeing Thoren match her movements.

  Cori then looked up, listening for any sound, but heard none. In the next moment, Thoren had pushed himself over the railing and stood next to her. He linked his hands together and cupped them, bracing his legs into a wide stance.

  Without having to speak, Cori backed up as far as she could before she ran forwards at Thoren. Mid-leap, she planted her foot in his hands, and pushed off his shoulders as he pulled her upwards with a grunt.

  Cori flew up, just enough that her fingers caught the edge of the roof. Getting her legs under her, she pulled herself over the edge, muscles straining.

  “Assess first,” Thoren told her quietly from the balcony below.

  Cori crouched on the rooftop, her breathing only slightly laboured as she looked left and right, searching for any sign of movement. The tops of these buildings were anything but flat and exposed. There were steeper sections in front of her as well as other parts of the building that jutted upwards, creating many places to hide behind or squat unseen in the shadows.

  Seeing no movement around her, Cori reached over the side of the roof, allowing Thoren to take a short run up to the wall and grip onto her wrist. The breath left Cori’s lungs at his weight, but with Thoren’s momentum, she was able to give just enough assistance that his hands grabbed the edge of the roof so he could pull himself up.

  After a moment, they stood side by side, eyes searching the darkened spaces around them.

  “She was heading in that direction,” Thoren said in a low voice, nodding to the right. Only a few moments had passed since they had seen the shadow above them from the alley, but that would be plenty of time to get away or find somewhere to hide.

  Then the bells sang out, ringing with a thunderous echo throughout the otherwise silent streets.

  A dark blur streaked across the roof to their right, and they sprang into action.

  Sprinting across the rooftop, they chased the person clad in black.

  Cori pulled out a throwing knife from her belt and slowed a little to time her throw with her footfalls. Her knife clanged off the side of a wall just as the dark blur rounded the corner ahead. Thoren was ahead of her now after pausing, so she picked up the pace so that when they rounded the corner, she was right behind him again. Ahead, Cori saw her leap into the air to jump a gap between the buildings ahead. She landed and rolled before coming back up to her feet and was on the move again.

  They ran along the roof in pursuit. Thoren, a foot ahead of her, jumped. Cori followed closely behind, and as she landed, she twisted to the side with a cry, her body flung across the ground from her poor landing.

  Thoren skidded to a halt, having executed his jump perfectly. He ran back to her. “Are you okay?”

  Cori nodded, gritting her teeth as she said, “Yes, I just landed wrong - don’t worry about me. Go!”

  Thoren hesitated only another moment before he was up and moving away from her.

  Cori pulled herself to her feet and brushed herself off before testing her legs by placing her weight through each of them. When she had assessed there were no injuries, she took off again at a slower pace behind where Thoren had disappeared around a section of the roof.

  Just as she turned the corner, a body collided with hers and she gasped. Hands came up to grip her shoulders to stop her from falling.

  “Shh,” Thoren said, “it’s just me.”

  They crouched together in the shadows.

  “I don’t know which way she went.” He leaned himself against the stone wall behind them and breathed in deeply as he continued to look around.

  Cori swore. “Thoren, I’m so sorry.”

  He looked over at her. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “Yeah, I think so.”

  He nudged her shoulder with his. “Then that’s all that matters.”

  30

  THE ASSASSIN PART SIX

  The Assassin had not been having a good time of it lately. Not only did the Legion always keep on her tail, but she wasn’t sure if they would ever let up until she was finally caught.

  She climbed in through a back window of Tiberius Teller’s house in the darkened early hours of the morning and moved quietly down a hallway before she stood in the doorway of his bedroom.

  The Assassin watched the man who had offered her this life as he slept soundly. She wondered at the satisfaction she might find in killing him, but she knew he had measures to release all the secrets he held in the event of his death. He knew too much about her. The Assassin also knew in her heart she could likely not bring herself to do it. A part of her, an exceedingly small part, was grateful to him.

  She cleared her throat loudly.

  Mr Teller shifted, waking from his sleep. When he rolled over and saw her in the doorway of his dark room, he sat up suddenly.

  “For… Gods’ sake. Could you try not to give me a heart attack every time you stop by?” he sai
d grumpily.

  Mr Teller stood from his bed and wrapped a ruby red cloak around him before he leaned over to light a lamp beside his bed.

  He sighed as he looked up to her.

  “I haven’t heard much from you recently.”

  The Assassin shrugged. “The Legion have made things more difficult for me.”

  Mr Teller chuckled. “Ah, yes… the Legion. So, have you at last fulfilled my request?”

  She reached into the pocket of her cloak, and pulled out a coin purse, dropping it to the ground with a jingling thud.

  He looked from the purse, which had opened, a few gold coins spilling to the floor, and then raised his eyes back to the Assassin.

  “I assume he was taken care of?”

  She shook her head minutely. He knew their deal. “He will no longer be a threat to your establishments.”

  A wide grin split his face. “Excellent. I can always count on you.”

  The Assassin folded her arms across her chest. “Not always. My contract is up soon, so make the most of me while you can.”

  Mr Teller frowned. “I’m still not convinced that you won’t want to extend our little contract. You suit this…” He gestured to her, to the way she was draped in her black cloth. “And you are extremely effective.”

  She said nothing, and she didn’t want to. The Assassin knew she would not extend her contract but arguing was pointless. Instead, she had another topic in mind.

  “The Shadow Legion,” she began as Mr Teller raised his brows, “what do your little whisperers know of them?”

  Mr Teller sat back down on his bed, looking entirely too comfortable with an Assassin standing in front of him. “I hear things.”

  “Do they have a leader?”

  “Ahh… looking to take them out, are we?” Mr Teller asked knowingly.

  “Curious for curiosity’ sake,” she replied coolly.

  Mr Teller laughed. “And why don’t I believe you.”

  “Believe what you will.”

  Leaning back on his arms, Mr Teller seemed to assess her, his darkened eyes hooded as they went from her feet back up to her head. It was an unnerving assessment.

  “My whisperers have… divulged some useful information on this group of people now known as the Shadow Legion,” he said, an eyebrow raising at her.