The Apprentice In The Master’s Shadow
Page 50
“Stop!” said Sorsha through gritted teeth. “I already told you, the Guild of Assassins never abandons a commission once accepted.”
Withdrawing the tip of the blade from Sorsha’s flesh, Kayden walked back around the chair to stand in front of the now talkative woman. “I didn’t say anything about abandoning the commission,” she said. “I want to come to some sort of arrangement that stops you people from coming after me. If that means paying you off to leave me alone, or having you lie about my death to whomever put the price on my head, so be it.”
A chuckle escaped Sorsha’s mouth. “You dumb bitch,” she sneered. “What you are proposing amounts to the abandonment of the commission. You need to make peace with the fact that you are going to be killed—whether it’s today, tomorrow, or next week. Even if you kill me, the Guild of Assassins will keep sending people eager to claim the unusually high payment on offer.”
“Then they will all fail, too,” snapped Kayden. “Just like you failed.”
She held up her dagger in front of Sorsha’s face, contemplating a proposal to exchange one life for another, but the words were forestalled by the uncontrollable trembling of her hand. Quickly, she lowered the weapon and slid it back into its sheath.
“Well, what do you know,” drawled Sorsha, suddenly looking pleased with herself. “Looks like I maybe receiving that payout after all. Perhaps I’m not as big a failure as you thought. Maybe I did kill you behind the temple, and your body is only now just realising that you are already dead.”
Kayden’s heartbeat quickened. She’d been feeling unwell for a while. She was perspiring, though her clammy body was cold, and she felt feverish and weak. Even before Sorsha’s gloating comment it was obvious that something was wrong. What she initially assumed to be the aftereffects of the healing process that saved her life after her fatal stabbing, now felt like the onset of a serious illness. But what if it was worse than that? What if…? She grabbed Sorsha around the throat with both hands.
“What did you do to me?” she yelled manically as she strangled her foe. “Tell me now or I will kill you.”
“Miss Jayta,” said Reznik from behind the counter. “You’ll wake up my other guests.” He proceeded to vacate his observation post at the serving counter.
The intervention brought Kayden back to her senses, prompting her to stop throttling Sorsha, whose face was turning red. The captive Sanatsai coughed and took a couple of ragged breaths then started laughing. Kayden scowled, knowing she was being mocked. She took a few paces backward, not trusting herself to resist the urge to hurt the prisoner.
“You don’t look very well,” Sorsha offered in between fits of laughter.
Stepping forward, Kayden punched the laughing Sanatsai in the face to shut her up. The blow didn’t have the desired effect so she threw another punch, then another. Sorsha stopped laughing and spat a mouthful of blood at Kayden’s feet. The defiant act of disrespect would have earned another punch, but Reznik put himself between the two women.
“Miss Jayta, may I have a word with you over there?” he said, ushering Kayden away from her prisoner. He brought her to a halt by a table several feet from the Sanatsai assassin, and lowered his voice to say, “I don’t want to alarm you, but she’s right. You don’t look well, and I think I know why.”
Without saying a word, Kayden stared at him expectantly, waiting for an explanation for why she was feeling as bad as she felt.
“Well,” he said, recognising the non-verbal cue to continue, “given the position of the stab wound you showed me earlier, I think your intestine may have been punctured. Now, I realise you said that you healed yourself, but if there was any leaking from your intestine it may have poisoned your blood. If so, you might not have much time left. You could be dying.”
Hearing the troubling speculation caused Kayden’s heartbeat to quicken, and her mind to race.
“The same thing happened to my brother during the last border skirmish with Sirathania seven years ago,” continued Reznik. “He survived the stab wound, but over the next three days his health deteriorated rapidly. The only reason he pulled through is because he was taken to a Sisterhood seminary in time.”
Kayden barely heard the words; her mind was elsewhere. She was now convinced she was dying of blood poisoning, and there was nothing she could do about it. Though the Jaymidari healing invocation she had utilised earlier that night could heal physical injuries, it wasn’t effective at curing illnesses, and certainly couldn’t treat poisonings. While the Zarantar of the Sisterhood did have the ability to deal with illness and poisons, Kayden had never deemed this knowledge worthwhile to acquire. Since becoming an apprentice of the Order she had never been ill, and she never imagined having to worry about being poisoned.
“Wait a minute!” she said. “Did you just say that the Sisterhood saved your brother’s life?”
“Yes.”
There was a Sisterhood seminary outside Nagornorak, Kayden remembered. It was the seminary Sister Zarina had travelled from to reach Sevdanor. “The Sisterhood has a seminary outside the city,” she said to Reznik. “The Sisters there will know how to cure…” Her voice trailed off. A disturbing realisation came to the forefront of her mind. Sorsha had told her that several assassins arrived in Nagornorak yesterday, awaiting her arrival. That could only mean the Guild of Assassins was tipped off while she was still on the road from Sevdanor, and she had only told one person of her intention to journey to Nagornorak. So it was surely Sister Zarina who had put the price on her head. As much as she didn’t want to believe that about a member of the Sisterhood, Kayden had instinctively known there was something not quite right about Zarina from the first moment they met. The murder of Governor Baldassian had confirmed her instincts, and how did the Sister know that she had journeyed to Anzarmenia from Mirtana?
“Miss Jayta, if you’re thinking about going to the seminary at this time of night,” said Reznik, intruding upon her thoughts, “I don’t think that’s a good idea, especially in your condition.”
“No, I’m sending you,” she replied.
“Me? I can’t go. It’s a two-and-a-half-mile walk… in the dark. That’s far too dangerous for me.”
“Well I can’t go,” Kayden insisted. “I’m not letting that bitch out of my sight. And I certainly can’t go gallivanting outside while there are assassins out there trying to kill me. You’ll have to go on my behalf and bring a Sister back here to cure me. But listen to me very carefully. You must only speak to the Head Sister of the seminary. You cannot speak to a young Sister called Zarina, nor allow her to know that I am the person in need of help.”
It looked for all the world as though Reznik was about to offer an impassioned objection, but his expression shifted suddenly, seemingly indicating that an alternative had just come to mind. “Sister Lillian!” he exclaimed. “She lives in the city with her husband and children. It will only take me fifteen minutes to walk to her home, and fifteen minutes to bring her back here to take a look at you.”
An overwhelming sense of relief swept over Kayden. She was suddenly hopeful of surviving the night.
“I’m going to grab my coat then set off right away,” continued Reznik. He vacated the saloon and returned a short while later wearing a dark overcoat. Retrieving his lantern from the serving counter, he instructed Kayden to bolt the front doors behind him once he was gone. Before stepping out into the night, he glanced at her one final time. “Try not to break anything while I’m gone,” he quipped. “And for goodness’ sake, don’t kill anyone.”
She flashed him a weak smile, unwilling to verbally promise him that she wouldn’t, but she thanked him for agreeing to fetch a Sister to attend her right away. He then departed the inn, and she bolted the doors. Feeling better about her predicament, she claimed a chair for herself, and sat down opposite her restrained captive. If Sorsha tried anything stupid while Reznik was away, Kayden would beat her senseless.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Surviving The Night
Based at a seminary not far from the disputed border with Randissar, Sorsha’s mother was not only an outspoken critic of Anzarmenia’s prohibition of killing any Saharbashi within its borders, she was an advocate of ignoring the prohibition. Once Sorsha turned sixteen years old, her mother would take her on clandestine journeys, on both sides of the border, to hunt down and kill Saharbashi whose activities came to the attention of the Sisterhood. Though this was how things were done in the old days, mother and daughter were compelled to conceal their lethal vocation from the other Sisters at their seminary.
Sorsha confessed to Kayden that she really enjoyed the killing she was tasked with. In fact, it was her frustration at the infrequent opportunities to engage in it that prompted her decision to abandon the Sisterhood at eighteen years of age. Leaving behind her mother and the life she had within the Sisterhood, Sorsha went out into the world to satisfy her bloodlust. It wasn’t long before she eventually stopped caring whether or not her targets were guilty of being practitioners of Zarantar Najist. In between pursuing Saharbashi targets, she would hunt down and kill wanted criminals—not only in Anzarmenia, but also in Randissar and Sirathania. When this ceased to be a challenge, she resorted to targeting soldiers, nobles, and government officials. By the time she was twenty-one years old, her activities had brought her to the attention of the most unexpected people. She was apprehended and recruited by the Guild of Assassins, and for the past fifteen years she had plied her trade throughout Karlandria.
“I can tell by the look in those pretty eyes of yours that you want to kill me,” said Sorsha, taking the one-sided conversation into a slightly different direction. “I can only wonder why you haven’t. I know you’re still upset with me for trying to gut you with your own dagger.” She flashed a mocking smile.
With the sleeve of her right arm, Kayden wiped her perspiring brow. “I think it’s time for you to shut up,” she said. “Otherwise I will shut you up.”
“It must be hard work suppressing what you are,” replied Sorsha, ignoring Kayden’s warning. “I see the killer in you. It takes one to recognise one. Why would you want to keep it bottled up inside? You have no idea what you are missing.”
Kayden ambled forward, intending to smack Sorsha in the mouth. She took just two steps before halting abruptly, and turning her head sharply to the left. She could sense the nearby presence of Zarantar Najist, and with it the certainty of imminent death.
“Someone’s here to kill you,” crooned Sorsha.
Glancing down at her captive, Kayden wondered how Sorsha could know there was a Saharbashi outside the inn, but then she remembered. Although she had bound Sorsha’s Zarantar as a Sanatsai, the female assassin still had her Jaymidari upbringing to fall back on, so she would also be sensing what Kayden was sensing.
Instinctively, Kayden invoked Inkansaylar to form a barrier sphere, encircling them both. As she stared in trepidation at the shuttered window where she sensed the approaching threat, a glowing red sphere burst through the wooden shutters and smashed the glass of the window pane to enter the inn. The fast-moving object hurtled across the saloon and struck the barrier sphere. Unable to penetrate the translucent bubble, the red globe continued to collide against the outside of Kayden’s defences like a fly trying in vain to exit through a closed window.
“What are you?” Kayden murmured.
She didn’t require an answer. Her certainty that the luminous red manifestation of Zarantar Najist would kill her if it breached the barrier sphere was more than enough. But she couldn’t remain inside the impenetrable bubble indefinitely. It was only a matter of time before the Saharbashi responsible for the flying red ball arrived, so she had to do something quickly. While trying to decide the appropriate course of action, she was taken by surprise when the sphere flattened against the translucent barrier, and appeared to become a small blood red stain. That stain slowly began to spread, gradually turning the barrier sphere red. Somehow, Kayden knew that things wouldn’t end well for her if the spreading red blight fully encompassed the translucent bubble.
The sound of snickering drew Kayden’s attention back to her bound captive. “I don’t know why you’re laughing,” she snapped, kicking the woman’s shin. “You’re in here with me. Whatever happens to me, happens to you.”
“No, princess,” Sorsha retorted, her husky voice thick with condescension. “A reaper stone will only kill the person it was invoked to kill. Which means I’m perfectly safe.”
Lips pursed, Kayden returned her focus to the blood red stain continuing to spread across the surface of her barrier sphere. The menacing blight now encompassed almost two thirds of the bubble protecting her, and finally her mind was made up. She brought down the barrier sphere, and instantly the red stain coalesced back into a small glowing sphere. Invoking Yuksaydan, Kayden used the ‘unseen hand’ to seize hold of the reaper stone and keep it at bay while she simultaneously attempted to neutralise it. Moments later, the red ball lost its shape and splashed to the floor as a little puddle at Kayden’s feet. Taken aback, she squatted down onto her haunches and cautiously dipped a finger into the liquid. She held the finger up and saw that her fingertip was stained red with blood, which prompted a flash of memory. In the alley where she’d been fatally stabbed, Kayden witnessed Lev, the Saharbashi assassin, employ his Zarantar to create a luminous red ball with spilled blood. Now it dawned on her that it was her own blood on the floor of the saloon.
Kayden abruptly stood upright, turning to face the entrance to the inn just as the front door burst opened, and Sorsha lurched sideways, throwing herself and the chair she was tied to onto the floor. Rushing through the open doorway was the same Saharbashi assassin Kayden had already encountered twice that night. He wasted no time going on the offensive again, unleashing three crackling orbs, reminiscent of ball lightning, into the saloon. Kayden diverted the pale magenta orbs back towards her attacker, courtesy of her invocation of Yuksaydan, and one of the three struck the assassin. His body became rigid, and his mouth opened in a silent scream as crackling magenta light crawled all over his body. The effects of the orb lasted no more than three seconds, but as it subsided Lev keeled over and hit the ground with faint wisps of smoke wafting from his clothing.
Feeling light-headed, Kayden ambled unsteadily towards the fallen body. To her surprise she found that he was still breathing, though she had no doubt that whatever type of orbs he had unleashed were intended to kill. She staggered to the entrance to shut the doors, but couldn’t bolt them closed due to the damage to the locks. Turning back around, she sensed Sorsha’s use of Zarantar Jist, and saw the ropes binding the assassin to the fallen chair turn to dust. With a wave of the hand, Kayden’s invocation of Yuksaydan picked up Lev’s prone body and threw it into the saloon, hitting Sorsha just as she was rising from the floor, having freed herself from the chair. Kayden’s swift reaction was followed by the invocation of Turmiraydan to unleash a concussion orb that struck the muscular Sanatsai woman before she could scramble back onto her feet.
The saloon began to swim around her, and Kayden knew there was a good chance she might pass out at any moment. With her two would-be killers already unconscious on the fl
oor, she invoked Inkansaylar to induce the strongest barrier sphere she could muster around the prone bodies. If she did lose consciousness before Reznik returned with the Sister he’d gone to fetch, it was unlikely the assassins would succeed in breaking out of their confinement and kill her.
She took a deep breath in a futile bid to clear her head. Still she felt weak, light-headed, and feverish. She ambled unsteadily to the serving counter, and placed both hands on the counter top as she leaned against it for support. Despite her best efforts, her eyes blinked shut and she keeled over like a felled tree, hitting the floor, unconscious.
Kayden’s eyes fluttered open to see the face of a woman with olive skin, shoulder-length brunette hair, and captivating hazel eyes hovering over her. Confused, about where she was and why she seemed to be lying down while staring up at the pretty face, Kayden felt a warm hand stroking her forehead. The mental fog began to lift, and she slowly turned her head to see that she was still inside the saloon of the Three Crows Inn, lying on top of a table with her legs dangling off the end.
She tried to sit up.
“Take it slowly,” said the hazel-eyed woman, holding her down. “You may still be feeling a little groggy.”
“The assassins?” Kayden murmured, still trying to force herself to sit up.
The woman eased her gently into an upright, sitting position. “Your captives are still trapped inside your barrier sphere,” she said. “They don’t look too happy about their confinement.” Her gaze scrutinised Kayden intently. “I must confess, I am amazed that your invocation persisted while you were unconscious. It’s quite extraordinary actually. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life, and from a Vaidasovian Sanatsai no less. Who are you?”