Rise of the Grandmaster

by Bradford Bates

  He looked as pale as a ghost. “The man with the orange sash is the one who killed me. This just got a whole lot more complicated.”

  “Well, it’s a good thing you brought me to uncomplicate things.” She grabbed his hand and tugged him forward. “Let’s go get some payback.”

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  No one keeps anything pleasant behind a locked door.

  With everything that was allowed to happen out in the open at the Stiff Tart, you had to be up to some very dark shit if you needed to hide behind a locked door. It wouldn’t be long before they found out exactly what Mr. Orange Sash was doing here with Fredrick. Maybe he simply had guard duty, but there was always the chance he was waiting for them.

  ShadowLily slipped the key into the door and turned it. Tim held his breath as the door swung open. When the man who killed him didn’t lunge out of the opening and stab his girl, he let out a sigh of relief. All of their plans would be ruined if she died, not to mention that he was totally getting used to her half-elven look.

  Right now, their biggest concern was that they didn’t really have a plan. At the very least, he would have liked to know the layout of the rooms they were entering, but he didn’t think to ask Antonio what was waiting ahead. With the door open, they couldn’t go back and ask him now.

  They were going to wing it, and winging it wasn’t one of Tim’s specialties. He liked to plan, and if it all went to shit, at least he had some idea of where things went wrong and how to fix them for next time.

  As ShadowLily stepped inside, she changed into her thief’s gear. Tim was kind of sad to see her outfit disappear. Despite how much he’d made fun of this place in his head, he loved looking at her ass in those pants. Maybe what these people were getting up to wasn’t so bad. No one was forcing them, and consenting adults could do whatever they wanted with each other.

  And if it meant she was going to wear those pants again, he’d come back here as often as she wanted.

  Following ShadowLily’s lead, Tim Switched into his assassin’s gear and equipped his knives. Since there were going to be at least three people in the room, helping with the attack seemed like a better choice. He could still cast a healing spell, it just wouldn’t be nearly as effective with his decreased wisdom.

  Tim sent a silent prayer to the Goddess Eternia. It never hurt to have help from on high on your side.

  He closed the door behind them and flipped the latch to lock it again. If all the workers had keys, it wouldn’t keep them out, but the closed door might buy them enough time to carry out his quest. He gave ShadowLily a quick nod before they both dropped into stealth.

  Moving down the long, dark hallway was creepy as shit. The only light came from a single torch at the far end. Next to the torch were an empty chair and a closed door.

  Why was the chair empty?

  Tim spun to see the dagger coming at him. There wasn’t anything he could do to block the strike. Instead, he threw himself out of the way. His back hit the wall, and he crumpled to the floor, looking at the thin red line cut across his chest. That was close.

  Too fucking close.

  The man in with the orange sash stood over him with a haughty sneer twisting his lips. “I thought I killed you already.”

  “Dapper Don probably thought the same thing right before I cut him down,” Tim said with all the bravado a man lying defenseless on his back could muster.

  “You ruined a good thing for me with the captain.” Juan Pablo pointed his dagger at Tim. “I’ve been fucking stuck here, working for that asshole Jepsom just so I could find you.” His sneer turned into a smile. “With your death, I can finally leave this shithole and sail home.”

  “Or maybe you’ll never get the chance.” ShadowLily dropped out of stealth and threw one of her knives at him.

  The man in orange dodged the blade easily enough. “You’re going to have to do better than that if you want to take out Juan Pablo.” He pulled a knife from inside his vest and sent it flying toward her.

  Tim couldn’t see past his nemesis, but he knew the knife hit her because she screamed in pain. One knife wouldn’t be enough to kill her, but Juan Pablo was already reaching inside his vest for another blade. Tim clutched desperately at his dagger as he climbed back to his feet.

  ShadowLily wasn’t going to die today.

  Juan Pablo heard the movement behind him and turned to face Tim. The two men stood staring at each other, Tim with his daggers at the ready and Juan Pablo with a single long knife in his hand.

  ShadowLily wasn’t screaming anymore, and there was no way for him to tell why without getting past Juan Pablo first. Tim had to help her, and this motherfucker wasn’t going to stop him from doing it. Juan Pablo had to die and die quickly.

  “Your little bitch isn’t as quick as she thinks.” Juan Pablo sneered at him as he waved his blade in slow, methodical circles.

  “Oh, she’s more than quick enough to deal with the likes of you. You just got lucky.” Tim snapped back with a confidence he didn’t feel.

  “That growing pool of blood says differently.”

  Tim pretended to try to look around him to get a better view of ShadowLily, knowing the bastard wouldn’t miss the opportunity to take him out. He wasn’t wrong. Juan Pablo lashed out with his knife, and knowing the attack was coming almost wasn’t enough to save him. His fight against the man in the orange sash almost ended right there.

  Against all odds, Tim got his dagger up and turned the attack away. While he missed getting stabbed, he couldn’t avoid the shoulder that slammed into him a moment later. His back crunched into the wall a second time, but he managed to stay on his feet.

  Not that it did him a lot of good. He stumbled away from the wall and felt a throbbing pain in his arm.

  Oh yeah, that’s what it feels like to be stabbed.

  Pain lanced down his arm. Shit. It felt more like the pain was ripping through his entire body. Juan Pablo smiled at him as he pulled the dagger free. Blood poured out of the open wound, and the dagger Tim held in his left useless hand fell to the tiled floor and bounced away.

  Tim stared at the gold teeth in the pirate’s smile, knowing that the last thing he was going to see in this world was that bastard’s happy face. The tip of Juan Pablo’s knife lowered, and Tim felt the tiniest prick of the blade on his belly. There was only time to do one thing, and if he was going to die, he wouldn’t do it without a fight.

  “I’m going to do this slow, so you’ll remember me in the next life.” Juan Pablo gloated as he slipped the tip of the blade farther into Tim’s stomach.

  “Fuck you!” Tim spat, as he slammed his dagger into the pirate's side. Sure, the move drove the fucker’s dagger farther into his own stomach, but the wound he dealt the man with orange sash was worse.

  Juan Pablo lurched to the side, then looked at the knife sticking out of him with surprise etched on his face. He plucked the dagger free and tossed the blade aside just as ShadowLily appeared behind him.

  Both of her daggers ripped into Juan Pablo’s back. She ripped the blades free and plunged them in again before kicking him toward the door. The man in the formerly orange sash hit the wall and collapsed to the ground. Blood pumped out of the five massive holes in his body before his chest stopped moving altogether.

  ShadowLily turned away from the rapidly cooling corpse with a smile on her face. “He’s not getting back up.”

  “Grrghh.” Tim coughed up blood.

  “Oh, shit.” ShadowLily knelt beside him, clutching his hands. “You have to heal yourself.”

  Tim didn’t respond, and his face was pale. She’d never seen someone go into shock, but she imagined this is what it would look like. His hand was clammy, and he wouldn’t open his eyes. She dropped his hand and slapped him hard.

  Tim’s eyes fluttered open. “What the fuck?”

  “Heal yourself, damn it!”

  Tim’s hand moved through the familiar gesture, a ball of water forming in his palm. He splashed it against his
arm and formed another for his stomach. The pain was starting to fade, but the memory of the attack was still with him. Maybe fighting wasn’t really his thing, after all. Life seemed so much easier when he was standing in back of the battle.

  Switching from his assassin’s gear into his healing robes only took a second. Once he had his staff equipped, Tim repeated the spells.

  “Save a little of that juice for me,” ShadowLily said as she slumped against the wall.

  “Oh, shit. I’m sorry.” Tim felt foolish even as he cast a healing orb on ShadowLily. He’d been so focused on himself that he completely forgot she was hit. He pressed the spell directly into her wound, and she let out a sigh of relief as the spell surged through her.

  “Are we done yet?” she asked, exhausted.

  Tim pulled ShadowLily up from where she had been leaning against the wall. “Not yet, but this part should be much easier.”

  “Let’s hope so.” She walked back over to Juan Pablo’s corpse and took a knee beside it. A moment later she stood up, brandishing another key. “This should get us through the door.”

  “Good thinking.” Tim switched back into his assassin’s gear and looked around for his missing dagger. He found it a few seconds later and placed it in his inventory. When he took the blade back out, it was as clean and sharp as the day Gaston had given it to him.

  “Maybe this time we should have a plan?” ShadowLily smirked at Tim.

  “I thought I was the only one who liked plans.” Tim motioned toward the door. “Unfortunately, we have no idea what we are going to find in there, so we’re just going to have to improvise.”

  “I can handle that if you can?” She slipped the key into the door. “But maybe you should still go first.”

  “You wound me.” Tim placed his hand over his heart. “And here I was thinking I had brought my most fearsome protector.”

  “You’re not dead, are you?” ShadowLily hissed as she turned the key.

  “Ask me how I feel about it in ten minutes.” They dropped into stealth, then Tim pulled on the handle and stepped into the room.

  ShadowLily entered behind him. From the sound of flesh slapping, they didn’t need to be too cautious. Tim shook his head as he crept into the room. These assassination quests weren’t the kind of missions he’d planned on getting into when he’d walked into the temple.

  I mean, how often do you go to a place of healing and leave with a quest to kill someone?

  It didn’t feel right to sneak around killing people, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to make this his profession. Tim would leave the killing to people with fewer scruples while he focused on healing. Everyone loved a healer. No one loved a guy that snuck into bedrooms to kill people.

  That was a fact.

  Still, there was one more name on his list. If you couldn’t commit to seeing a job through, you shouldn’t take it on. There was something to be said for finishing the job. How many people had he met that said they were going to write a book but never made it past chapter one, let alone finished the book?

  That was the thing with the arts; everyone thought they could do it, but it was just not that easy.

  Some people had loads of talent and others could learn to do something as a skill, but no one person could do everything perfectly. Tim couldn’t paint for shit, but he could make the numbers in his Excel sheet sing.

  Not that either of those things mattered now.

  Moving farther into the room, Tim realized Fredrick’s lover was another man. Well, love whoever you wanted to love. If you found another person in this world who completed you, you should hang onto them and not be ashamed.

  That being said, he had always imagined his first time walking into a situation like this, it would be two women on the bed in front of him.

  A smile crept onto his face. Sometimes the difference between reality and fantasy was just too big a gap to bridge. Plus, this wasn’t like his dreams of finding two women going at it, only to be invited to join. He wasn’t going to be joining this rodeo anytime soon. Instead, he was here to make sure one of these men found an early grave. It really didn’t matter now.

  Tim motioned for ShadowLily to stay put as he dropped stealth and walked casually toward the bed. “I’m looking for Fredrick Bohanna.”

  The men rolled apart. One of them looked up with rage burning in his eyes. “Who in the fuck are you, and where is that slimy bastard who was supposed to be guarding the door?”

  “Juan Pablo is no longer with us.” Tim ignored the bluster as he pointed his dagger at the other man. “You work here?”

  He just nodded his head.

  “If there is a bathroom in here, I suggest you go to it now.” When he didn’t move, Tim roared, “Get the fuck out of here!”

  The man leapt from the bed, his ghost-white ass cheeks bouncing as he ran for a door at the back of the room.

  Fredrick Bohanna didn’t look nearly as concerned. He lit his cigarette with a taper from the candle and stared defiantly at Tim. “So, what, you’re here to kill me?”

  Tim pulled one of his throwing knives free and hurled it at the man. It stuck in the headboard not an inch from Bohanna’s cheek and quivered. “Something like that.”

  “Well, you’re going to have to try a little bit harder than that I’m afraid.”

  This meeting wasn’t going how Tim expected. “You’re not afraid to die?”

  Fredrick laughed. “Why would I be? I am one of the goddess’ chosen. I’m working directly for the next high priest.”

  “It seems the current high priest doesn’t agree.” Tim pulled another knife free. He took his time, slowed his breathing, and let it fly.

  The dagger sailed smoothly and at the last second twitched to the right, leaving the smallest of cuts on Fredrick Bohanna’s cheek.

  “Like I said, you’ll have to do better.” He tossed the sheet to the side and stood up. “Can you?”

  Tim didn’t know what was happening, but he could feel something going on. It was like the man was pulling all the magical energy from the room in preparation for a catastrophic attack.

  Gritting his teeth, Tim pulled his daggers free. “You’d be surprised by what I can do.”

  Lightening started to form on the tips of Fredrick’s fingers and a cruel smile grew on the man’s face as he prepared to kill the interloper where he stood. His hands came up, ready to unleash the spell, but his smile faltered.

  ShadowLily appeared at his side, dagger covered in scarlet blood up to the crosspiece.

  Bohanna’s spell fizzled, and he looked at her in disbelief. “But I am one of the chosen.”

  “Not anymore.” Tim plunged his dagger into the man’s heart.

  They stood there for a moment, looking at the body on the ground. Neither of them knew what to say. Tim knelt to loot the corpse but didn’t find anything except a few pieces of jewelry. He quickly added the items to his inventory.

  ShadowLily bumped the end table, and Tim heard the clinking of coins. He stood up as she tossed the bulging sack at him. Plucking three gold coins from the bag, he tossed them toward the bathroom and handed the bulging purse back to the woman of his dreams.

  “Thanks for all your help. I really couldn’t have done this without you.” Tim glanced around the room to make sure no one else was going to pop out to attack them.

  She pocketed the bag of coins. “And don’t you forget it.” ShadowLily gave him a sly wink. “While I liked the Stiff Tart, next time you want to buy me a kinky outfit, all you have to do is say something. We can skip all this drama and get to having fun.”

  Tim liked the sound of that a lot better than he liked hearing her scream in pain. He wrapped his arm around her waist as they started walking toward the exit. “Oh, I for one could do with a good deal more fun and a hell of a lot less almost dying.”

  “Yeah, but tell me the truth.” She paused to look directly into his eyes. “It was worth it just to see me in those pants, right?”

  Tim put the back of his han
d to his forehead and pretended to swoon. “My life would not have been the same without it.”

  “Watch it, or you might not get to see my ass out of those pants ever again.”

  Things were getting serious. He pulled her closer and winked. “Give me some sugar, baby!”

  “Let’s just get out of here so I can live up to my end of the deal.” Her clothes blurred as she switched back into her ultra-sexy outfit.

  Tim let her get a few steps in front of him. “Never mind, I don’t need a super-cool chainsaw hand as long as you own those pants.”

  ShadowLily turned, a smirk on her face, and one eyebrow arched so high she might have been trying to get the goddess’ attention. “Eyes up, mister. I’ve got other assets that need attention.”

  Tim looked into the most beautiful eyes he’d ever seen. “Yes, Mistress.” They entered the club again with him trailing behind her.

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  “What is all this?”

  Tim looked at the table covered in food and the bar next to it. There were people milling around, making little plates and sucking down glasses of some kind of turquoise liquid. He’d never seen anyone besides Reginald in Lady Briarthorn’s house, so walking into a party was a bit of a shock.

  Reginald looked around the room at the guests and back at Tim. “Why it’s a party in your honor, of course. You’ve returned to us the victorious hero again.”

  Who knew stabbing people was heroic?

  “I don’t feel like much of a hero.” Tim frowned at the gathering, wondering how quickly he could get out of there.

  “Nonsense.” Lady Briarthorn emerged from the crowd. “You’ve dealt a harsh blow to the usurper and returned to us unscathed. Isn’t that what heroes do?”

  She tilted her glass and finished her drink with a practiced flick of the wrist. “Come join me in the study, so we can take care of business.”

  Reginald bumped his arm. “Don’t mind Lady Briarthorn. She’s not much for parties either, but she has to keep up appearances.”