The Reluctant Assassin Boxset

by Thomas K. Carpenter

  Percival, who certainly had placed imbuements on even the most delicate parts of the body, had not been ready for the abruptness of her clothing removal. But true to his Englishness, he recovered quickly with a clearing of the back of his throat. The gun buzzed to life, and he placed the needle against her backside.

  Receiving their second imbuements seemed to take less time than it had their first year, probably because it wasn't as unknown as it was before, though Instructor Pennywhistle, who had accompanied them on this trip, had said nothing about the nature of its magic.

  It also helped that Instructor Pennywhistle, wearing an all-black ensemble including high heels and a high ponytail, was more engaging than Instructor Allgood, who thought that the ability to glower while smiling was an asset.

  After the imbuements had been given, the instructor gave Percival a peck on the cheek and led them to the portal. They came out into a dim cavern. Behind them was an obsidian arch surrounded by a low wall.

  "Back in the Undercity," said Vin. "At least this time we're not rescuing Skylar's magical vibrator."

  Skylar tweaked Vin's nipple, resulting in a yelp.

  "I deserved that," said Vin, grinning.

  Instructor Pennywhistle looked on disapprovingly. "Come. We've a little ways to go before you get to try out your new imbuements."

  Zayn had been itching to flood his imbuement with faez, but he knew that would be dangerous without knowing what it would do.

  When they reached a huge cavern that contained a faint orangish glow at the back, Instructor Pennywhistle tilted her head, looking like whatever it was, was unexpected.

  "Something wrong?" asked Zayn.

  "Devil dogs. Probably a foolish student from another hall toying with spells they were not equipped for. Hubris is the death of many a mage," she said, glancing towards Zayn with the hint of a smile at the corner of her lip.

  "Are they dangerous?" he asked.

  "For the group of us, no, but they can be trouble for a single mage without a good understanding of their abilities. But that's not the lesson we came here for. We'll go another way," she said, and led them towards a different tunnel.

  After another hour, in which they'd passed through countless caverns filled with strange phosphorescent fungi and dark bodies of water that they carefully avoided, they reached a cave that seemed to repel the luminosity from their magelights.

  Instructor Pennywhistle smiled as they stared at the line where the darkness swallowed the glow.

  "Perceptive," she said by way of compliment. "The cavern before you has been cloaked in magical darkness. Sight is impossible, at least by normal means. One by one, you will traverse it while avoiding the dangers contained within."

  "Dangers?" asked Vin.

  "Nothing too terrible. Pit traps, blade rooms, a few wandering snapjaws that might take off your hand if you get too close, and other assorted surprises that I'll let you find on your own. It's quite the fun little challenge if you ask me," said Instructor Pennywhistle, waggling her meticulous eyebrows.

  "You have a strange sense of fun," said Skylar. "Hopefully the imbuement we just got will give us iron skin or something."

  "Nothing so mundane," said Instructor Pennywhistle, as if the thought of having iron skin would ruin her carefully cultivated look. "When properly fueled, the imbuement heightens your senses quite significantly."

  "So we're supposed to make our way through the darkness just by listening?" asked Zayn.

  "This is a lesson best learned by doing, rather than being explained," she said. "Skylar, you're first. I'll be waiting on the other side. I will not interfere no matter what happens inside. I'll send a signal when the next student should enter."

  Skylar looked quite alarmed. "What happens if we get hurt in there? Or can't figure out how to use our imbuement?"

  Without missing a beat, Instructor Pennywhistle said, "Then you shouldn't have joined the Academy. Oh, I almost forgot to add. Normal magic won't work in there, so don't think you can bash your way through it with force bolts. Imbuements only. I will bid you good luck, even though luck has nothing to do with it."

  Instructor Pennywhistle disappeared into the darkness, leaving them alone. Everyone looked at Skylar, whose face was etched with concern. Her shoulders were bowstring tight.

  "Don't worry, Skylar," said Portia, putting a hand on her shoulder. "You're gonna do great."

  Before Skylar could enter the darkness, Zayn said, "Wait. Don't go in."

  "What?" they all said to him.

  "Let's figure out the imbuement before she goes in," said Zayn. "Pennywhistle didn't say we couldn't."

  "Good point," said Vin.

  "Anything that keeps me from going in there is good with me," said Skylar. "I hate the idea of not being able to see."

  "Alright, let's do this," said Zayn. "But start slow, not too much."

  He closed his eyes, letting faez trickle into the imbuement. A prickly warmth flooded outward from the back of his head, traveling down his spine pleasurably until it felt like he was being bathed in mint.

  Gasps erupted around him, so he opened his eyes. Portia looked like she was in the middle of an orgasm.

  "I can feel everything," she said. "Oh mierda, what a good day to wear my favorite silk panties."

  "I can totally feel the way the breeze blows through the cavern, like it's a living thing," said Vin.

  Skylar's eyes were wide. "I can hear your heartbeats."

  Zayn was aware they were speaking, but it was hard to concentrate with so many inputs. He could hear water dripping in the cavern behind them, the lingering smell of perfume that remained on Skylar's wrist, the scuffing of Vin's sneakers as he balled his feet inside of them.

  He opened his eyes again to see the others staring at him. "What?"

  "You're all quiet. Are you feeling it?" asked Vin.

  "Almost too much. It's a bit overwhelming," he said.

  "How much faez did you use?" asked Skylar. "Wait. Never mind. I remember how far you jumped on the course last year. You're probably hearing the city above."

  Wondering if he could, Zayn concentrated, pouring more and more faez into his imbuement, until he felt like a satellite dish for the universe, transfixed by the inputs. In the distance, he heard the scraping of claws on stone, probably the devil dogs, but they were still far away. He felt other things but he had no name for them, and decided to pull back, letting the faez relax.

  "Could you imagine what sex would feel like?" asked Portia breathlessly.

  Everyone held still with thought, considering her question. Then he heard, as clear as if she were standing next to him, Instructor Pennywhistle say from across the cavern, "It's better than Christmas with the pope, and you all can experiment later, amongst yourselves if you want, but enough playtime, send Skylar in."

  His eyes burst open, and he let his hearing return to normal. "Um, did you guys hear that?"

  Judging by their blushing, they'd heard the instructor as well. Sheepishly, Skylar slipped into the darkness.

  "Wish me luck."

  After a forty-minute wait, which was punctuated by occasional gasps and the sound of steel on stone, Instructor Pennywhistle notified them Skylar had made it through and asked for Vin next. Then after an hour, Portia entered, leaving Zayn alone.

  He used his imbuement to listen to the action in brief increments, but didn't want to wear himself out while waiting. Keeping faez in the imbuement for a long period of time would be challenging enough.

  When it was Zayn's turn, he stepped into the darkness, his senses tingling with newness. He let himself acclimate to the lack of sight, feeling the way the stone reflected his heat like an echo. He sensed a rock column two feet in front of him and reached out to brush the rough stone with his fingertips before stepping around it.

  He found he could navigate if he moved slowly, waiting until the picture of the cavern drew itself against his skin, but the problem was his "sight" only extended five feet at the most, and if he encountered a
challenge further out, he would be blind to it.

  Zayn poured more faez into his imbuement, drawing in the world around him. Immediately, he felt a presence to his left, low to the ground, lumbering forward. A snapjaw, he presumed. It had the outline of a large turtle in his mind. He might have missed it had he not used more faez, since he was focused forward.

  Moving to his right to avoid the slow-moving creature, Zayn felt a thin steel wire press against his ankle. He threw himself backwards as a blade sliced through the air. He slammed his shoulder into a sharp point on a rocky column, slipped on scree, and fell right before the snapjaw.

  Zayn switched his faez from senses to speed, and pushed off the ground as if he were doing a pushup, straight into the air and back on his feet, right as the creature's jaws snapped in front of his nose.

  He backed away carefully, after shifting back to his senses, rubbing his shoulder that had sustained quite a blow in his escape.

  "Clever bastard, you were waiting near the trap for an opportunity like that," said Zayn as he stepped over the second and third wire that were stretched across the path.

  Rather than use his senses like a general-purpose beacon, Zayn switched between fine focus and broad pulses, first seeing the world as a map, then homing in on the potentially deadly details.

  This taxed his faez faster, but he wasn't feeling particularly challenged yet, so he amped it up another level, but the picture further than ten feet out grew fuzzy. So Zayn took a deep breath to warm the air in his lungs, then blew out, seeing the heat swirl before him like a colorful flood until it crashed against the obstacles further out.

  "That's better," he said.

  Feeling more confident, he pushed himself through the maze of caverns, avoiding the traps with more ease. He figured he was about halfway through the course when he heard the scrape of nails on stone again. The devil dogs had entered his cavern, and as he threw his senses in their direction, he could hear their sniffing as they tracked his path through the maze.

  He considered calling for help, but even if he did the others wouldn't reach him before the devil dogs, and he'd only give himself away. He thought about trying to climb to a higher place, a rocky ledge or the top of a column, but he didn't know what devil dogs were capable of.

  Trapped in the dark without a weapon and being hunted like a rabbit. Great.

  There were three devil dogs. Two were headed directly towards him, following the path he'd taken, while the third was flanking. The first two would probably try to push him into the third.

  Clever girls, he thought, wondering if they were even gendered. But two can play at that game.

  Using himself like a radar station, Zayn spun in place, amping his senses to their limits. He found what he was looking for, but the snapjaw was on the other side of the devil dogs. He'd have to get past them somehow, if he wanted to lure them to the armored creature.

  Zayn checked back to the devil dogs only to find them missing from their previous location. He scanned quickly, looking further out, thinking they might have backtracked or found something more interesting.

  The thrumming heartbeat of a beast about to pounce was the only warning Zayn had before the devil dogs leapt. In a burst of faez, Zayn sprinted forward, oblivious to the possibility of knocking himself out on a wall.

  Frustrated by his escape, the devil dogs made noises that sounded like dying men. Their haunting wails made him want to cower into a ball.

  Without realizing it, Zayn stopped running. His muscles had hardened until he could barely take a single step forward. It was like moving through molasses.

  He sensed a devil dog creeping around the corner, about fifteen feet from his location. While the screams of the other two had taken the flight from his limbs, the third was readying itself to tear out his throat.

  Zayn realized why he couldn't move almost too late. Their cries had some effect on prey, and as amped as he was through the imbuement, he was more susceptible. Dropping his senses, Zayn found he could move again.

  The devil dog leapt. Zayn threw himself to the left, then blindly sprinted in a random direction. The air rushed by his face. He made it a good twenty feet before the floor fell away. He managed to push off the edge of the pit and hooked the far edge with his fingertips, crashing heavily into the wall.

  His fingers slipped and he slid to the bottom of the pit, landing hard on his heels, snapping his teeth together painfully.

  At the bottom of the pit, Zayn sensed spikes as tall as he was, that he'd narrowly avoided. But he couldn't sense the devil dogs. They'd gone silent, and his location confused his ability to see the maze. He wasn't entirely sure that one of them wasn't above him, waiting for him to climb out.

  Zayn tried to form a force bolt, hoping that the anti-magic field didn't extend into the pit, but the spell sputtered at his fingertips.

  He leaned forward, extending his senses upward. A devil dog was waiting at the edge as he expected. He was trapped without magic, stuck at the bottom of a pit.

  Think, Zayn. What do I have that I can use as a weapon?

  He tugged on a pit spike. It was fastened to the floor. He used his faez strength to bend it back and forth until he was able to snap it off at the base.

  While he hadn't trained with the spear in Allgood's dojo, he was familiar enough with the concept. Stab it with the pointy end seemed like a good tactic. But he was aware that he knew nothing about devil dog physiology. For all he knew they could have hardened stone skin, or they naturally repelled iron weapons.

  But he also sensed the approach of the other two devil dogs. If he didn't deal with the first soon, he'd have to fight all three at once. The one above the pit probably just wanted to keep him in place until the others could arrive.

  The pit was about fifteen feet deep, and he had a short space to run across one side. Zayn took a deep breath and sprint-jumped off the far wall, catapulting himself out of the pit and behind the devil dog. He stabbed forward, only to find the air empty. He almost realized too late that the creature had somehow teleported behind him. Zayn spun around in time for the devil dog to impale itself on his makeshift spear.

  That was how the others had moved so quickly. They could teleport short distances. It probably took a sizable amount of faez to do, which was why they couldn't do it often.

  Zayn put his boot against the dead devil dog's head and pushed it off the end of the spear. The smell of acrid blood filled the air. Zayn hurried away before the others arrived.

  Without their wails in the air, Zayn comfortably used his extended senses, moving through the maze. He kept his reflexes on a hair trigger, splitting faez between the two imbuements. The two devil dogs pursued him with vigor, their claws clacking against the stone. They were so close behind he could feel their hot breath against his back. He guessed they were trying to get close enough to teleport onto him, trapping him, and tear him limb from limb. He could practically feel their teeth against his throat.

  He had to find a place he could defend himself, keep the devil dogs from getting behind him, but the passages were wide. Using the traps against them was out of the question, since they had avoided them with ease.

  The only warning he had that they'd teleported was a telltale metallic fizz that tickled his nose. The first arrived ten feet before him, opening its mouth to nail his feet to the floor with a horrible wail. The second was right behind, readying its leap. Zayn had nowhere to go.

  He released the sensing imbuement and leapt straight into the air as the devil dog flew under his feet and crashed into its brethren. There was a brief scramble of claws and growling, during which Zayn resumed his sensing and took off into the maze. But their ambush had disoriented him, and he ran into a dead end.

  Keeping his back against the cool stone wall, Zayn held the spear before him, preparing to drop his sensing should they use their wails against him.

  "Come on. Let's get this over with."

  He heard their silent approach, callused pads scraping along the stone.
At first he was confused by what he heard. It sounded like the devil dogs were stutter stepping, but then he realized what it meant. Two more devil dogs had joined the first pair. Somewhere behind the other two, he heard the low growls of a fifth.

  The pack surrounded his spot against the wall, blocking any escape. And once the first one used its wail against him, he'd be blind to their attacks.

  "I'm taking at least two of you with me," said Zayn, gripping his spear tightly.

  He heard the beginnings of a wail, then a new figure moved into the cavern, right into the middle of the pack. He heard the sound of knives unfolding and suddenly blood was in the air.

  At first he thought it was Instructor Pennywhistle, and the outline felt like her, moving through the devil dogs with deadly precision, but he caught another familiar smell that wasn't her.

  But this thought quickly faded as he charged into the fray, stabbing the nearest devil dog through the neck. The pair of them slaughtered the pack with ease, though Instructor Pennywhistle did most of the work.

  When they were finished, the smell of hot blood hung in the air. Zayn was breathing heavily.

  "Are you well?" asked Instructor Pennywhistle.

  "A few scrapes and bruises," said Zayn. "I'll take that over a ripped-out throat any day."

  "Come, let's get to the others, where I can see you," she said. "Stay on my heels, I'll take you through the safest route."

  After a ten-minute run, they came out into a lighted cave. Even though the light was dim, Zayn had to squint and hide his eyes with his hand.

  The others surrounded him.

  "Are you okay?" asked Skylar, touching his arm.

  "I don't think I'll ever look at a rabbit the same way," said Zayn.

  Instructor Pennywhistle examined his wounds. "Nothing a soak in the healing springs at the Academy won't fix." Her eyes searched his face. "That was quite an impressive defense under difficult circumstances."

  "Just trying to stay alive," he said.