Journeyman Assassin

by Brian Keller

  It was almost a month before Uaine revealed herself again, but when she did Cooper was perched on a tree limb. Her sudden appearance nearly caused him to fall and Uaine giggled incessantly while he struggled to maintain his balance. As soon as he’d recovered his balance and his breathing, Cooper spoke, “Uaine, it’s nice to see you again, but do you have to surprise me so?” Uaine had started clapping when he spoke her name, but she stopped immediately and took on a slightly indignant expression when she heard his tone. She replied, “No, I suppose I don’t.” With a toss of her head she turned as if to leave. Cooper spoke quickly, “Uaine, I’m not mad. I really am happy to see you again. When you surprised me, I almost fell. People sometimes sound angry when they’ve been frightened.” Uaine seemed to think about this for a moment. Her expression didn’t brighten, but she didn’t leave either. Cooper wanted to change the mood, “Have you enjoyed the stew, Uaine? I’ve been leaving some for you.” She smiled, it seemed she reacted as much to hearing him say her name as to the reference of the food. She replied, “We do like it, but we like the man’s stew better. He uses more herbs.” Cooper nodded, “We only have dried herbs now. All the fresh herbs have withered away. We have to make our supplies last until the spring when we can start collecting them again.” She was carrying a flower with yellow petals. It had several tufts beginning to show on many of the small seeds in the center. Pointing at the flower, Cooper asked, “What do you have there, Uaine?” Her mood brightened entirely, “Ragwort! While the tufts last, we can use them to fly!” Cooper couldn’t help the amazed expression on his face as he exclaimed, “Fly!? You can fly!?” She shrugged, “Of course.” She said it as if it were the most normal thing in the world to be able to fly. He had no idea how to respond to that. Magic really didn’t have an explanation. If he asked, Uaine was likely to reply, “It just is, or it isn’t!”, and there was simply no point in engaging in that conversation again. Instead Cooper asked, “The last time we spoke you said there was something you wanted to tell me?” She became thoughtful, “Yes. It’s about the man and the men that come into the forest looking for him.” She paused to see if Cooper seemed interested; he was. He had hoped that she had more to say about him, or his magic, but he found that he was glad to listen to whatever it was she had to say. She continued, “We have seen where they come into the forest, from the mountains to the west. It’s always the same place. Maybe that’s important?” Cooper nodded, “It might be. You should tell Utsef about it.” She looked curious, “Utsef is the man’s name? You want me to talk to him?! No, no, no, no!” These last words were accompanied by a fierce shaking of her head. Cooper spoke in a calming voice, “You said he already knows about you, right?” She listened but didn’t speak, but she nodded in confirmation. He continued, “And he makes the best stew. And he shares it…” She smiled as she nodded again. “And he knows about you but has never tried to search for you? Is that right, Uaine?” She nodded, “Yes, that’s true.” Cooper was taking a little of a gamble here but he pressed on, “And when he awoke one morning with his boots tied together, did he get angry?” She thought about it, then giggled, “No, he didn’t, and he added extra herbs to the stew that day. I remember.” She paused, smiling at the memory. Then her expression and her voice became insistent, “But I didn’t tie his boots. That wasn’t me! One of my brothers had been watching an acorn forming on an old oak. He was waiting for it to ripen, saying it was going to be yummy. When it fell, the man, Utsef, took it, along with a handful more and boiled them several times and ate them. My brother was upset that the man had taken his acorn.” Cooper had started chuckling as she told the story. When she’d finished, he was still laughing. She seemed to pout, “What’s so funny? If you know something funny, tell me. I want to laugh too!” Cooper stopped laughing so he could speak, “I am just laughing because I am imagining how angry your brother must have been to tie Utsef’s boots together, and Utsef waking the next morning to the discovery, yet having no idea what he’d done to deserve it!” Cooper chuckled again, and as he watched the realization happen for Uaine he chuckled even more. As she saw him laughing, she began to laugh as well. For a few moments each of them seemed to feed the other’s amusement.

  It didn’t take long for them to settle down and resume their conversation. Cooper continued his line of reasoning, “Utsef has always taught us to find the patterns of the forest, and move with them. I think he would feel the same way about you.” She looked a little doubtful and said, “But he’s a killer…” Cooper nodded, “Yes, he is. And so am I.” Her eyes widened at this admission. She seemed to shrink away from him momentarily. “You didn’t kill any of those men. I was watching.” Cooper agreed, “That’s true. But if any of them got past Utsef, and came after Kolrem or me, I certainly would have. Uaine, you need to understand that the way men live is different than how you live. Utsef may be a killer, but it doesn’t mean that he’s a danger to you.” She had a thoughtful expression, “I will need to think about this. And I’ll have to talk with the tylwyth teg. I can’t just run around introducing myself to everyone who comes into the wood!” Cooper appeared to have a reply, but her serious face with a single raised eyebrow discouraged further discussion about it. It brought up a question that Cooper hadn’t considered earlier. Uaine had turned away, obviously in preparation to leave. Cooper felt compelled to ask, “Uaine, how old are you?” She looked over her shoulder at him before turning to face him again. She answered, “I don’t think we measure time the same way you do. But as near as I can guess, you would say that I am several hundred years old, maybe even more. Why?” Cooper already knew why he’d asked but he took a moment to think about it. He wanted to make sure he picked the right words. Once he felt satisfied he replied, “Because you see things about my world, the world of man, the way a child would. You express a constant joy of discovery and you make me feel a sense of wonder as I begin to see it too. I am grateful for that.” She walked up to him and placed a hand on his cheek. Her touch was light, and surprisingly cool. Her eyes looked into his and she seemed a little saddened as she spoke, “You should learn more how to see things as we do, Cooper. But I can also see how that is not likely to be. I know you will not be here in the forest for much longer. For me it will seem like a blink of an eye. I am glad we have spoken. Perhaps we will agree with what you’ve said. Perhaps we will reveal ourselves to the man; Utsef. We shall see.” As she turned away again, Cooper asked, “Will we speak again, Uaine?” She looked over her shoulder, her face bore a faint smile, “We shall see.”

  Chapter 23

  For the last several months their routine had become mostly the same, yet everyday was something different so it never felt tedious. In the morning, while the boys put some food together to eat, Utsef would prepare the memory game. They’d get a glimpse of the items after eating breakfast and then spend an hour or two working on their bows. The majority of each day would be spent stalking each other or hunting for food. During the winter months, food became as much the focus as the training aspects of the process. Then the late afternoon hours would be spent in some combination of ‘managing their pantry’ as Kolrem started calling it, and sparring. Then over dinner, Utsef would ask them to describe as much as they remembered of the memory items, or some days he’d wait and ask them the following evening. Every day was a little different.

  The boys became quite proficient with darts and throwing knives, even becoming fairly skilled with employing them while sparring. It took considerable concentration, but it became rare that they ever failed to catch their blade and immediately resumed fighting. It was even rarer that they ever missed.

  The boys had spent a couple hours every day for several weeks trying to put cords together that could be used as bowstrings. To be able to withstand the force of the draw and the snap of the release, all while propelling an arrow was a lot to expect from a string of twisted and woven fibers. With Utsef’s guidance, the boys settled on soaking some lengths of deer gut in a tanning bath, then twisting and stretching th
em each day before leaving them to hang with a weight suspended to keep them taut. Once their bows were complete, the boys strung them with the lengths of gut, then tied them off and trimmed the strings to length. Their bows appeared to be slightly longer than Utsef’s but the curves didn’t appear to be as severe. Utsef explained, “The shape may still adjust a little as time passes. If it does, all that should be needed is an adjustment to the length of the bowstring.” The boys learned that with their more powerful bows, they needed to adjust their point of aim. After they’d retrieved the first few arrows that had flown well above the target, they had it figured. It wasn’t long before the target needed to be replaced. The new bows sent arrows forward with devastating effect. Utsef’s only comment was, “Finally, now with your bows complete, we’ll have a couple more hours each day to train. You boys need all the time you can get.” From that time on two things became a certainty; Utsef no longer needed to hunt for food, and they were never without fresh meat.

  They’d observed the trees go from bare, to showing buds and then later forming leaves to catch the sunlight. The boys noticed that life in the forest changed dramatically as the leaves appeared. Even as life in the forest seemed to increase its activity, their training regimen continued at an unfaltering pace.

  Another month, when each campsite was further and further east than the one before it, Cooper began to suspect that his and Kolrem’s time in the forest was approaching its end. He couldn’t deny that he missed being in the city, but he had grown to love the forest. There was an undeniable feeling of strength and power here. A sense of stability that wasn’t present in the city. He knew that when he felt hard cobblestones beneath his feet again, he’d miss seeing the sunlight pierce the gaps between the leafy boughs.

  Days later, as they approached the same clearing where they’d first arrived, they saw that Maro and Binru were already there. The camp didn’t look fully “lived in” yet, so Cooper guessed they hadn’t been there for more than a couple days. His suspicions proved correct when they stepped out of the trees, surprising the two men from the city, and Utsef asked, “Have you two been waiting long?” As the men recovered from the sight of their sudden appearance, Binru shook his head, “Nah, just got in yesterday morning.” Maro added, “Glad to see you though. Haven’t seen any deer and we’re nearly at the end of our rabbit meat.” Utsef nodded, “That’s easy enough to fix. No new students then?” Maro shook his head, “Nope, but we might be coming back through in a couple months. Depends on how things work out. There’s some things we need to tell you… a little later.” With the last comment he looked meaningfully at the boys. Cooper assumed this was a poorly disguised hint. He turned to Utsef, “Perhaps Kolrem and I should go hunting for awhile?” Utsef looked at Maro. Maro only shrugged. The teacher looked back to the boys, “Let’s finish setting up camp. You boys prepare your belongings for travel and then we’ll see.”

  It only took a few minutes. Arranging their bags to get a good weight distribution, then strapping one of the quivers to the outside of their packs. They bundled up their furs and coats and laid them to one side, to leave them for Utsef. He could pass them along to the next students coming in. They left their sleeping mats rolled loosely near their packs. They would still want them for the trip home. They would sleep in their hammocks tonight. They had gone through their bags and put their collection of herbs next to the furs. Utsef stopped them, “No. You boys keep the herbs. It’s springtime now and there will soon be herbs everywhere. Those will be stale by the time I would want them again, anyway.” The boys placed the herbs back inside their bags and prepared to go out and hunt.

  They were back in less than two hours with a freshly killed, gutted deer. Maro and Binru were suitably pleased, and relieved. Upon their return, Utsef looked troubled. After the deer had been hanged, dressed and quartered, and some meat had been cut up and added to the pot, Binru added some of the herbs and took over the cooking. Utsef called the boys over to him. His expression was serious as the three of them sat down. He took a deep breath, then spoke, “Apparently the Guild has taken some significant losses. Things may be a bit different than they were before you came here. I believe that Maro and Binru have told me all they know and some of what they think, but I prefer to keep with what they say is the truth, and avoid their suspicions. If what they say is true, then at least half of the Adept Assassins and several of the Master Assassins have been killed, along with an unknown number of other members, students too. Most of those Assassins now dead were killed while investigating the deaths of others. I don’t want to add my unfounded suspicions but statistically speaking, something like this usually means that there’s poison, or traps, involved. If the true extent of this is as shocking as it sounds, probably both. The boys looked at each other, they were both wondering if they had lost any friends. They were also wondering what might be in store for them upon their return. They also knew that they wouldn’t find answers to these questions until they were back within the walls of the Guild.

  After the evening meal, Cooper took a final offering of stew to the ‘customary’ spot. As he climbed onto the large tree limb he discovered a small leather pouch laying on the limb. As he picked it up he could feel how heavy it was. He pulled the pouch open and looked inside. As he dumped the contents into his hand he estimated there were two dozen gold pieces and a rolled up piece of paper. He barely paid attention to the coins, dumping them back into the pouch as he unrolled the paper. Once he got it unrolled, it rapidly disintegrated in his hands but not before he managed to read it. It had taken him a moment to recognize the letters and words from within the flowery script:

  “Fare thee well, kinsman.

  For future reference, use more glue when making your bow.

  We fiddled with them both. They should work fine.”

  Cooper thought about the words on the note and spoke to the empty forest, “Great. Now how am I supposed to explain that to Kolrem?” Off in the distance Cooper thought he heard the sound of a tiny bell, softly tinkling, but it could’ve been his imagination. He left the stew as he had done almost every day for the last several months, he then laid his hand on the trunk of the tree and spoke quietly, “Enjoy the meal. I will never forget you.”

  The following morning, they woke, ate and cleaned up in the stream. Once they’d dressed, they each closed up their pack and tied their sleeping mat across the top. As they pulled their packs onto their backs, Utsef came over and clasped hands with each of them, “Take care of each other. Remember what you’ve learned here. You’re both good candidates, but there’s much still ahead of you.”

  Kolrem replied, “I thought I’d always hate it here. Now, I can’t imagine never having been here. I’m almost sorry to be leaving… almost.”

  Cooper was nodding his agreement, “I’ll always be grateful, sir.”, then Cooper leaned in closer to Utsef and whispered, “The hunters from the Broken Lands are coming in from a single trail through the mountains to the west. Don’t ask me how I know. Just know that you should keep leaving some seasoned food in the evenings.” As Cooper drew back, he saw a curious look on Utsef’s face, then his teacher grinned, “I knew it, somehow, I’ve always known it.” The teacher nodded as he stepped back and appraised his students a final time before he turned and re-entered the forest.

  Chapter 24

  Maro and Binru walked a little ahead, leaving the boys to their thoughts. The route back was the same route they’d used months ago, but everything else seemed different. Where Cooper had only seen miles of empty grassland before, he now saw fields teeming with life. He could smell the freshness of the air. Almost as if it was purified by blowing across the grass. He wondered now how he’d react being back in the city, the smell of dead fish from the waterfront, the decayed stench of the Dregs; suddenly it didn’t seem so appealing anymore. He knew better than to focus only on the worst. He imagined how it would be to see Trea, Birt, Aden and Loryn again. Then caught himself hoping they were still alive. Hoping none of them were
‘some of the students’ that had been killed. He shook his head in an attempt to purge the thoughts from his mind. It didn’t help much, but it did draw his attention to something moving in the field. Cooper took up his bow, nocked an arrow and stalked off into the grass. A few minutes later he caught up to the horse and hung a freshly skinned and gutted rabbit from the saddle.

  That evening, over dinner, Maro asked, “How’d you boys come across bows like those?” Kolrem shrugged, “We made them.” Maro snorted, “Made them!”, he grunted in disbelief, “How much do they cost?” Cooper replied, “No idea. We didn’t buy them. Kolrem told the truth. We made them.” Binru chimed in, “Well, whether you did, or whether you didn’t, I never seen nothing like them, and we’ve been taking kids back and forth for a few years now. I saw how that bow sends arrows flying. I saw how those arrows came off the strings. I daresay those arrows could fly a mile.” Kolrem grunted, “I doubt that, but I don’t want to waste an arrow just to see how far they’ll fly.”

  By noon the following day, Paleros was visible on the horizon but it took several more hours before it appeared to have grown any closer. Cooper increased his pace a little to catch up to the men, “Do you plan on trying to get to town tonight?” The men looked at each other, then each shook their heads. Maro replied, “Nah, there’s been a bunch of killings. Utsef told you, right?” Binru added, “I don’t think bein’ out in the city at night’s a good idea. That’d be askin’ fer trouble, the way things are now.” Cooper wondered how bad things had to be, to have inspired such apprehension in these two men. Whatever was happening, it appeared to have wrested control of the night from both the Guard and the Guild. He supposed he’d learn soon enough.