by Arthur Slade
“I couldn’t kill him,” I admitted. “I couldn’t. He’s my brother.”
“Do you want me to do it?” Brax asked. Blood still flowed from where Corwin’s sword had cut him. “Just say the word.”
“No.”
“We can’t leave him alive,” Thord said. “And it’s not like he would have given any of us mercy.”
“No. He wouldn’t have,” I said. But I thought of all our years together — our childhood playing with toys, running around at the feet of the maestrus. “He wasn’t always so horrible.”
“Well, he is now,” Megan said. “And if we release him he crawls back to the emperor. Honestly, just turn your back, Carmen. I’ll be quick about it. Unless my hand slips.”
“No,” I said. “There is one thing we—”
“Oh, isn’t this splendid!” Corwin interrupted. “It’s a reunion of family and friends. How glorious.”
Chapter 33
A Tear of Sorrow
I looked to be certain his hands were tied tightly. They were, but even having his eyes glare into mine made my stomach sink.
“I suppose you’re drawing lots to decide which of you will get the pleasure of stabbing me,” he said.
“We were just discussing that,” I answered.
“Ah, so there is a quarrel. And you, sweet sister, couldn’t finish me off. How inept.” He sneered toward Megan and Thord. “I can tell by the look in their eyes they agree with me.” Then he glanced at Brax. “And he agrees too. And … Hey, your dragon only has one eye. Did you know that?”
“Of course,” I said.
“And you … you have a grey eye. It looks oddly like his. I wonder …” He smiled. “Oh, sister. A magical dragon eye. How clever of you. A shame you didn’t have the guts to join me. We could have ruled all of Ellos with Sargon as our puppet.”
“I have better things to do,” I said.
“There is nothing better to do.” His smile never faded. “So what’s the decision? I could offer you gold. Or freedom. Or you could strip me and let me walk chastised back to the emperor. He might execute me himself: he’s a little chop-chop-choppy that way. Or is this where you want me to beg for my life? Ha. Never. I won’t beg to you idiots. So do your worst.”
“Thord,” I said. “Can you take the pommel of your sword and—”
“Thord,” Corwin said. “You’re getting Thord to do your dirty work?”
“—and press down on his jaw?” I finished.
Thord drew his sword. He limped over, leaned down, and set the pommel on Corwin’s jaw.
“Press hard. And keep his mouth open.” He did exactly that, putting his weight into it. Corwin tried to jerk away from the pressure, but Thord held tight. Any harder and he might dislocate the jaw.
I lifted my cloak from the ground, reached into one of the pockets, and found the item I wanted.
“Powsion?” Corwin said, his words garbled. “Yah caneven stab me? Poesin?”
“No, brother. I will make you forget.”
“Fohrget?” His words were slurred. “Fohrget.” Then it came clear. “No! No! No!”
I dumped the contents of the vial into his mouth. “Now close his mouth.”
Thord grinned as he grabbed Corwin’s jaw and head and squeezed so Corwin couldn’t spit the stuff back out.
“You’re right, Corwin,” I said. “I’m too weak to kill you. Too soft. But you know what the corporthium pill does: you’ll shortly fall into a coma, and the alchemy will work on your brain so you forget everything.” His eyes widened, then narrowed in anger. “You will forget your skills. Where you came from. What it was like to see those Immortals fly down to the Red Fortress. It will erase your first kill from your memories. And your second. And third. All the things you love about life will one by one be taken from you. And finally you’ll forget your own name and be nobody. Nothing. You won’t even be my brother anymore.”
There was a tear coming from his left eye. I knew it wasn’t from the pain. It was a tear of sorrow.
“Goodbye, Corwin,” I said.
Then he blinked and blinked again. By the third blink he closed his eyes.
He had already forgotten how to sleep with his eyes open. The next time he opened them, he would no longer be Corwin.
“I still think we should have just killed him,” Brax said. “It seems like a waste of good powder.”
“So what do we do with him now?” Megan asked.
“I have an idea about that too,” I said.
A plan had just landed fully formed in my mind.
Chapter 34
To the Skies
We took several minutes to strip him of his armour, wrap him in a blanket, and strap him to the back of his swan. I emptied the saddlebag of everything that would give him a hint of where he was from and left him with only a bit of hard bread and dried meat.
“He is not dead,” Brax said. “But the oath we swore in that cave so long ago involved his death. Do you consider our debt settled?”
“Yes. You have fulfilled your part of the bargain. You are free.”
He smiled, showing his teeth. “Good. Then before we discuss the second part of that bargain, I have one more thing to do.”
He turned back toward where Corwin was strapped to the swan. It squawked and hissed, but before it could move, Brax blinded Corwin in one eye with a quick flick of his talon. “It’s only fair,” he said. “Your brother left you this way and you’re too pure to take revenge.”
I swallowed. “But, but — he’ll bleed to death.”
Brax spat in Corwin’s eye. I thought it would burn, but the liquid bubbled up. “It will heal, if that’s what you are about to ask. Dragon’s bile will heal it — I may have forgotten to tell you about that particular property. Besides, it’s a good look for him.”
I could see it wasn’t even bleeding any longer.
“There,” he said. “We dragons do worry about what is fair and what is not. And that seemed eminently fair.” He glanced at Thord and Megan. “And I am certain your companions agree.”
Both of them were pale, but they nodded.
Brax rubbed his talons together. “Good. We’re agreed. Now, about the rest of your plan.”
I explained it to the three of them and they agreed that it made sense. Then we spent the next few hours eating the rough bread and dried meat we found in the saddlebag of the extra swan. Thord stitched up Megan, who didn’t cry out loud once. Then Brax spat on the wound.
“Why didn’t you use that on me when I was wounded?” Thord asked.
“I don’t like you,” Brax said, simply. Neither of them laughed.
We drank from the waterskin. Brax allowed Megan to sew his wing closed to help with the healing. He flapped it and grimaced but said, “Good as new.” He stood taller, making it clear that his strength was returning. “And now for the second part of our deal, Carmen Crow. Do you remember what you swore?”
“Yes. I will become your servant for the space of one year and I will kill someone for you.”
“Yes, that’s it. You are officially my servant now, Carmen.”
“I am,” I answered.
“What is this?” Thord said. “You can’t do that.”
“I swore an oath,” I said. “A Red Assassin never breaks her oath.”
Brax nodded at that. “Your friends don’t have to worry. I will be a good and kind master.”
We packed our goods, filling the bags of each swan. We had at least taken all the assassins away from the emperor except Scyllia, but she was nowhere near as dangerous as Corwin. Sargon might still plot and plan, but without the cleverness of my brother to guide him, he would find it hard to unearth the hidden assassins.
I still had a contract to kill the emperor, but it wouldn’t be fulfilled tonight.
We took to the sky. Thord led my brother’s swan by its reins.
We flew to the west for many hours, until we were near the edge of the mountains. We landed on a plateau that looked out over the ocean. I sl
id off Brax and took one last look at Corwin, then nodded. Without a word, Thord let loose the reins of the swan and smacked it on the side.
It flew in a direct line away from us. Further and further west.
“It will keep travelling until it tires,” Thord said. “Many hours from now. Your brother will be hundreds of leagues away. Perhaps they will land on an island and he’ll spend the rest of his life there.”
I knew that in time he would wake up and not know who he was or even how he’d been blinded.
“He’s no longer my brother,” I said. “He will become someone new.”
“Goodbye to a rotten sibling,” Brax said. “He was a waste of bones and flesh. Speaking of flesh, the time has come for you to say goodbye to your friends.”
I turned to them. Megan was still pale, holding her side. Thord met my gaze. “I will fulfill my oath to Brax,” I said. “And I will return to find you both.”
“You had better treat her properly,” Thord said.
“Oh, the puppy barks at the dragon,” Brax said. “Yes, I will be the greatest master she has ever had. I will feed her thrice a day. I want her to do her work.”
“Look for us in Avenus when you return,” Megan said. “We’ll leave word with Maestru Beatrix.”
“I will,” I promised. “I will.”
“Now come, Carmen Crow Slave, enough of this,” Brax said. “Get on my back, for your work has only just begun.” I climbed on and with a few powerful swoops of his wings he was in the sky. He began flying north.
I waved one last time at Megan and Thord, then stared toward the distance.
On my right the sun was rising. Perhaps that was a good omen.
About the Author
Arthur Slade is the author of over twenty novels for young readers, including The Hunchback Assignments, which won the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award and the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire (France), and Dust, winner of the Governor General’s Award for Children’s Literature. He lives in Saskatoon.
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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Title: Dragon assassin / Arthur Slade ; cover art by Sally Gottschalk
Names: Slade, Arthur, 1967- author.
Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20190161280 | Canadiana (ebook) 20190161299 | ISBN 9781443175517
(softcover) | ISBN 9781443182225 (ebook)
Classification: LCC PS8587.L343 D73 2020 | DDC jC813/.54—dc23
Map by Garnet Whyte
Copyright 2019, 2020 by Arthur Slade. All rights reserved.
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First e-book edition: February 2020