The Assassin

by Trudie Collins

  “Your family are all well,” he said before Brin could ask. “Your wife and all three children have missed you greatly, but we have coped well while you have been away.” He glanced at the wagon, noting the coffin in the back. “Do you want to go the long way round or shall I have one of my platoon drive the wagon for you?” he asked.

  Before Brin could reply, Hawk spoke. “You must be anxious to see your children,” he said to Brin and Sam. “Go the quick route. Do not worry about me. I will be fine. Besides, if I fly in tomorrow night, I will probably be there before you.”

  “Thank you,” Brin said as Sam hugged him.

  As they rode, Nisse filled them in on all that had happened while they had been away and Sam and Brin, in turn, told him about their adventures.

  They made good time and a crowd was waiting for them once they reached the city. The King and Queen were standing with Brianna and Brin’s three children, who had all grown significantly. Tears filled Sam’s eyes as soon as she spotted her daughter and it took all of her self-control to not run to her. Kat had no such control and broke away from Brianna, who was holding her hand, and jumped into her mother’s arms. Taking this as a signal, Brin’s two sons did the same thing and Brin was forced to carry them both to where his wife was formally waiting to greet him.

  Once the children could be prised away from their parents, Brianna informed Brin that his house had been made ready. One of the rooms had been made into a nursery for Kat and another room had been furnished for the two boys, should they ever wish to stay over.

  A feast had been prepared for later that evening and nobody was really surprised when Brin announced that he and Sam needed to get some rest before it was due to begin. They walked to Brin’s house and Sam stared up at it.

  “How am I supposed to get up there?” she asked. Hawk had always been around to fly her up every other time she had entered Brin’s abode, but darkness would not descend for a few more hours.

  “It is about time you learned how to climb,” Brin informed her and after a few failed attempts, she finally managed to get herself up the tree and through his front door, which he closed behind her.

  “Alone at last,” he said, taking her by the hand and leading her to his bedroom. This, too, had been done up. His small bed had been replaced by a much larger one and the entire room had been made to look like a couples’ bedroom instead of that of a single man.

  “Your wife has good taste,” Sam said, approving what had been done with the décor, but Brin did not hear her; his mind was on other things.

  “It is so good to be home,” he said as he threw her onto the bed and kissed her.

  Epilogue

  Brin paced around the room, tugging at his collar, much to Sam’s amusement. “Relax,” she said. “The ceremony is not for another hour.”

  “But I look ridiculous,” he complained, glancing in the mirror once more.

  ”No, you look regal,” she contradicted. “As you should. This is your coronation after all.”

  At that moment Nisse walked in and burst out laughing. “See,” Brin said to Sam accusingly.

  “Leave him alone,” she chided Nisse. “I am having enough problems convincing him he looks good without you undermining all of my efforts.”

  “But he looks like an ear of corn that is not fully ripe,” Nisse said, grinning. “Gold is definitely not his colour.”

  “Why are you here?” Sam asked, doing her best not to laugh.

  “Brianna needs you. She is having trouble with her hair or something,” he informed her.

  Sam left Brin’s room and walked over to a door almost directly opposite it, entering without knocking. The soon-to-be Queen of the elves was sitting in front of her mirror, playing with a ringlet of hair that cascaded down the left side of her face.

  “Nisse said you wanted some help with your hair,” Sam said, “but it looks great to me.”

  “No,” Brianna replied, “I just wanted him out of the room for a while. It has taken me ages to get this to look right and he keeps threatening to mess it up.”

  “How are you feeling?” Sam asked her, taking a seat on the bed. “Nervous?”

  Brianna shook her head. “No. All I have to do is sit there and look pretty. How are the children?”

  Kat, along with Brin’s two boys and Brianna’s daughter with Nisse, were in the nursery with their nanny. “Driving the nanny insane,” Sam informed her. “They are all very excited and want to get into their new clothes, but Helgi is not going to allow that to happen until the last moment.”

  Although they were only half-brothers and sisters, and Kat was not related to Frey by blood at all, the four children had grown up together and treated each other as real siblings. They never made fun of Kat for being half-human and defended her if any other elven children did so, resulting in the two boys being reprimanded for fighting on more than one occasion. It was not a traditional family unit, but it worked well, with Sam looking at Brianna as her daughter’s other mother and Brianna doing the same with Sam.

  There was an unexpected knock on the door and Fay walked in. “You look lovely,” she told Brianna, admiring her jade green silk dress. “I wore a similar dress for my coronation.” She sighed. “It seems like only yesterday that Manta and I were taking our thrones for the first time and now I will be handing my crown over to you.”

  Sensing that there was a lot that the old Queen wished to say to the new, Sam said she had better keep an eye on the men and left the two ladies alone. Brin was no longer pacing when she re-entered the room. Nisse had had a bottle hidden under his jacket and both of them were now sipping from small glasses.

  “Do I want to know what that is?” she asked, eyeing the bottle suspiciously.

  “Do you remember what I gave you to drink when you told Dean you had chosen me?” Brin asked her. She nodded. She could still feel a burning sensation in her throat whenever she thought about it.

  “How much have you had?” she asked.

  “This is the first,” he said, smiling at her concern. “And the last, I promise. I do not wish to make a fool of myself by not being able to walk to the throne. I look ridiculous enough as it is.”

  Sam sighed. “I am going to check on the children.” She glanced at Nisse. “Or should I say the other children. Behave yourselves while I am gone.”

  “Who us?” he said with fake innocence.

  She opened the nursery door and walked inside. The two young Princes had their own rooms in the palace and Kat usually stayed at the house Brin shared with Sam, so in reality the room was usually only occupied by Frey, but it had always been referred to as the nursery and Frey did not mind, so that is what everyone still called it.

  All four children were sitting quietly reading. They had not heard Sam enter and she watched for a few moments. As her eyes fell on Kat, unpleasant memories resurfaced once again. She and Brin had desperately wanted Kat to have a true sibling and it did not take long for Sam to fall pregnant once she was settled in her new forest home. Unfortunately it seemed that the stories about mixed species being unable to have children were based on truth and Kat truly was a miracle. After two miscarriages, Sam finally carried to full term, but the child was still born.

  Unable to cope with Sam’s grief, as soon as she had been sedated, Brin had visited the elven healers, begging them to do something to prevent him fathering any more children. He knew that there was a potion either he or Sam could take, but if they forgot then he could accidentally impregnate her and he could not let her suffer the loss of another child.

  The healers confirmed that there was an operation they could perform that prevented men fathering children, but his hopes were dashed when they refused to perform it on him. Although he had provided two heirs to the throne, they would not risk the royal line by preventing him from fathering more should the need arise. He got very drunk that night and ended up crying in Brianna’s arms. When he fell unconscious, Nisse put him to bed in his room in the royal suite and Brianna went to
visit Sam. Finding her awake, she told her what Brin had done, and why, and suggested that Sam should consider an alternative. Sam did not need to think about it and the healers were sent for. By the time Brin was sober enough to visit her, the surgery had been performed to remove her womb and ovaries. Brin had been horrified at first, but when Sam told him that she would not live through the loss of another child, he accepted that she had done the right thing. Knowing she would never have another child still hurt, however.

  Helgi noticed her and beckoned her into the room. “How did you manage to get them to stay so quiet?” Sam asked her.

  “Threats,” the elderly woman replied. She had been the nanny to all four of the children and, though they no longer needed her, she had become part of the family and was now treated more like a grandmother than a servant. “I simply told them that if they did not relax for a while I would tell their parents they were too tired to take part in the ceremony.”

  Sam laughed. “We should really think about getting them dressed soon. Guests are starting to arrive and they all need to be in their seats before the ceremony begins.”

  “I was thinking the same thing,” the nanny said. No sooner were the words out of her mouth than books were dropped on the floor and the two boys rushed out of the room, heading towards their own. “Children,” she said in fake despair.

  “I will see to the girls if you want to look after the boys,” Sam volunteered. Then she had an idea. “On second thoughts, I will send Nisse after them. He needs something to do other than tempt Brin with more alcohol.”

  When Nisse was safely dispatched and Sam found herself alone with Brin once more, he took her in his arms. “I wish things could be different,” he said wistfully. “You should be by my side out there today.”

  “No I shouldn’t,” Sam said sternly. “Today you will become King and Brianna will be crowned Queen. Tonight you will be back to being my lover. Nothing will change, I promise.”

  “I will hold you to that.” They held each other, neither wanting to let go, until it was time for Sam to leave. “You should be going,” Brin finally said, “or we will both miss my coronation.” He gently pushed her towards the door, softly smacking her bum as she left.

  The ceremony was to take place outside, so Sam collected the girls from the nursery and took them to their assigned seats in the clearing. Albiz, the younger of Brin’s twin boys, was already there, impatiently waiting for his sisters to arrive. Sam wanted to say hello to some of the assembled guests, but she had spent so long with Brin that it was too late. Still, there would be plenty of time after the ceremony.

  She looked at those gathered around her and thought back over the last ten years. There had been good times and bad, and some close friends were missing.

  Her eyes fell on Patrick and Ellen and memories of their wedding flooded to the surface. Wanting to keep it quiet and simple, they had wed on Patrick’s island, with only close friends attending. The chief ogre had performed the ceremony and nobody knew if this was actually legal, but neither Ellen nor Patrick cared. They were husband and wife in their own eyes and nothing else mattered. They were now the proud parents of two boys and a girl, the youngest having been born just over a year ago.

  River and Grimmel were still together and, though childless, were blissfully happy. They lived with River’s people and made annual visits to Gitwerc to see Grimmel’s family and his ex-wife, who had remarried a few years after the divorce. Grimmel had suggested that River take a lover, in order to conceive, but she had refused, stating that if she was to have a child, Grimmel would have to be the father. As a result, they doted on their nieces and nephews, who all did their best to make them feel as loved as any parent.

  Nosmas stood beside Zenda, his wife. Quartilla’s feelings about the wizard did not change, so they married on her birthday. Everything had been fine at first, but the age gap, and Nosmas’s workload, began to take its toll and a few years later Quartilla found her sexual needs were not being met and started to have an affair with Olan, the Chancellor’s son.

  Nosmas often worked long hours and had no idea of his wife’s infidelity until Olan challenged him to a duel one evening. He announced that he was in love with Quartilla and could not bear to see her married to another man any longer. He knew he would lose the duel, but he saw no other option open to him as he was no longer content to just be her lover. Stunned, Nosmas asked his wife about her feelings towards Olan and when she announced that she would rather be with her lover than her husband, Nosmas agreed to a divorce. He still loved Quartilla with all of his heart and could not bear to do anything that made her unhappy, so once the legal proceedings had been dealt with he resigned from the council and visited Patrick.

  After both the assassin and Albian had been dealt with, Zenda had remained on Patrick’s island, at the request of both himself and Ellen. The castle was too big for just the two of them and they had grown used to having other people around when Sam and Dean had been living with them. She had not made any other plans, so she willingly accepted their invitation and was an immense help when the children started to arrive.

  She was still there when Nosmas visited and the two soon became good friends. It took a while, but eventually the friendship developed into something more and they became man and wife. They remained living on the island, but not in the castle. Patrick had a cottage built for them close by and hired Nosmas to manage his business affairs, the job Dean had taken on for a while. Nosmas found that he was much happier with Zenda than he had ever been with Quartilla, but could not help smiling when he heard that she and Olan had split up and she was now back living with her father. Rumour had it that she had sought Nosmas out, begging him to take her back, but he refused to comment on whether this was true or not.

  Hurst was now too old to make the journey to attend the coronation, but Dean was present. He and Sam had kept in touch using winged messengers and she had been overjoyed when he announced that he was getting married. He now had a rapidly growing family and his wife had had to remain behind in Yallend as she was heavily pregnant once more. Unlike his friend Frando, Dean found that he could not bring himself to impregnate a number of different women, refusing to spend the night with any until he had developed true feelings for them. His wife was the first shaten he had felt any attraction towards and he was now more in love with her than he had ever been with Sam.

  Sam glanced towards Ria, Tor and their daughter and once more had to suppress a tear. Tor had not told Ria that she would never be able to have children until she brought up the subject of starting a family. He had debated what to do, finally opting to tell her the truth; he would not have been able to bear seeing her become more and more disappointed as the months went by and she did not fall pregnant. She had taken the news better than expected, understanding why Tor and Ellen had kept it from her. They were discussing the possibility of adopting when tragedy struck.

  Dal and Seth had returned to Remeny with Tor and Ria. Nine months later, Dal gave birth to a healthy baby girl. A little over a year afterwards, she went into early labour with her second child. There were complications and, despite Ellen’s assistance, the witch aiding with the delivery was unable to save either Dal or the child.

  Overcome with grief, Seth had spent the evening trying to outdrink Patrick and Tor. When his body was found floating in the river the next morning, the official story was that he had fallen in and was too drunk to swim. It was a story that none of his friends believed. Seth loved Dal and could not bear to live without her, even for the sake of their daughter, and they all suspected that he had committed suicide. Nobody spoke this suggestion out loud, but all thought it was the more likely scenario.

  With Dal’s mother’s permission, Tor and Ria had adopted Seth and Dal’s daughter, bringing her up as though she was their own. They often spoke to her of her real parents and they visited their graves every year, on the anniversary of their deaths.

  The couple also had a son, who had seated himself with Patrick�
��s children. Ria was happy being mother to her adopted daughter, but she knew that Tor longed for a child of his own. He never said so, but she knew he desperately wanted a son that was his own flesh and blood.

  When one of Remeny’s trackers had died in an accident, Ria had approached his young widow. Tor spent a lot of his time with the trackers, so Ria knew most of their families well and was aware that this particular young woman had been hoping to start her own business, if she could raise the capital. Now that she was widowed, she had no income and knew her dreams would never be fulfilled. Ria had gone to visit her with a business proposition; sleep with Tor and provide him with an heir and she would purchase the premises and stock the woman would need.

  Initially the widow was shocked, and refused to even consider the offer, but when Ria explained that she was unable to have a child of her own, the widow became more sympathetic. Ria went on to explain that the offer still stood, no matter what the widow decided, the only difference being that Ria would own the business and would demand a reasonable rent instead of handing it over to the widow outright. Her husband had been a good tracker and a loyal subject and Ria could not bear to see his wife destitute.

  Eventually the widow agreed, but convincing Tor had been much harder. Initially he was angry at Ria for even suggesting that he could be unfaithful to her, but between them, the two women managed to talk him round and the widow became Tor’s lover. A few months later, the widow announced she was pregnant and gave birth to a healthy baby boy. Tor was overjoyed and Ria loved the child as much as she did their daughter.

  Although the widow was told that she would be allowed as much access to her son as she wished, she decided that it would not be fair on the child and decided to move her business to a different city so that she would not have to watch him grow up. Ria kept in contact with her and she was now running a very successful business with her new husband. They had one child and a second on the way and the bargain she had made with Ria was never mentioned again.