by Lizzy Ford
Is this a good thing? Aveline could not help but think. If Tiana gushed about marrying a wealthy man, Aveline would be annoyed but understanding. But Tiana’s dreams were of a dangerous nature, of escaping the city, and she had put enough thought into it to include Rocky and draw a map, which she held up for Aveline to see.
“Is this about your brother or the Free Lands?” Aveline asked.
Tiana flushed.
“You don’t plan on coming back, after we find him.”
The Hanover girl fell quiet.
Of every nightmare in existence, Aveline could think of none worse than taking Tiana outside the walls. Not because Aveline did not wish to help her friend, but because she believed doing so would be the fastest way to see Tiana hurt, probably dead, within a day.
With no sense of the world outside the pyramid in which she lived, Tiana’s eyes glowed with excitement, and Aveline could not help but feel ill prepared to deal with the girl she was charged with protecting.
“Tiana, this is my home. I’m a seventh generation assassin. I want to take my father’s place one day. Why would I want to leave?” Aveline asked, frustrated already. Whether it was the time alone with her thoughts, or the lack of control over her changing world, Aveline felt ready to explode. She was sweating again, too, adding too her irritation.
“We can come back,” Tiana said reluctantly. “Will you think about it?”
I’d rather burn, Aveline answered silently. “Let’s just … slow down. I’ll talk to George and have him tell your father that Arthur isn’t where they think he is. The simplest, and safest, solution is to let them handle it, and for you to stay right here,” she reasoned aloud. She could think of nothing worse than hiking across the wilderness while Tiana cried about … everything.
Tiana’s features fell into sorrow, and she folded in upon herself, the way she had when Matilda used to scream at her.
Aveline groaned. “Don’t look at me like that!” she exclaimed. “I’ll think about it, okay? We will find some kind of … I don’t know. Middle ground.” Even as she said the words, she had no idea how that was even possible in this situation.
But Tiana smiled, and Aveline was reminded of how she had always tried to balance Tiana’s delicate feelings with the harsh reality of their world. Maybe sneaking Tiana out for a day trip into the city would be enough to satisfy her curiosity.
“I haven’t been outside in two weeks,” Aveline said. “I need some air and to check on my friend Rocky. He’s probably worried about me. We can figure out what to do about Arthur when I get back.”
“Very well,” Tiana replied.
What is she thinking? Without another word, Aveline tossed her clothing on the table near the hearth, turned, and left.
Aveline strode through the Hanover’s luxurious apartment and rode down the servant’s elevator. She had stepped outside, into the brisk winter morning, before she registered where exactly she was.
Aveline sucked in winter air that stung her lungs and shook out her newfound tension after the talk with Tiana.
Could nothing stay constant in her life long enough for her to find her footing?
She stood in place, observing the daily activities of the city dwellers, before striking off in the direction of the inner city to search for Rocky in one of the many hiding places where he was known to stay.
Her mind went from Tiana’s mad request to Karl, and her step quickened. She had seen his face in her dreams every night while trapped in prison. What was worse: she experienced the same sense of loss when she thought of him as when she thought of her father, albeit lesser in intensity. How was it possible for her to mourn Karl, the man who betrayed her father and lied to her?
Hours alone to think had resulted in her acceptance that there could be no misunderstanding, no explanation, for what Karl had done. What remained now was finding out why and just how far Karl’s betrayal ran. She was resolved to hearing the truth directly from him, and fulfilling the oath she took to protect Tiana, before she appealed to the Guild for inclusion as an assassin.
Guild. Arthur.
Aveline cursed under her breath, suddenly recalling the reason why she, too, should have been concerned about whether or not Arthur made it back alive. He had paid off her father’s debts in exchange for protecting Tiana – and he had promised to become her benefactor, and buy her a sponsor, so she could join the Guild as a full-fledged assassin.
Without his influence, she would need to secure a new benefactor, or at least, curry favor with sympathizers who would not begrudge her for breaking the Guild’s rules. Without a benefactor, her chances of becoming an official assassin were slim. She was likely to remain an apprentice until she had backing.
Arthur was not the only option, but he was the easiest option for her to find favor with the Guild and follow in her father’s footsteps.
The Hanover’s were quickly becoming the source of a massive headache. Determined to focus on her task at hand, she pushed all of them from her mind.
Aveline glanced at the cloudy sky, uncertain if her father were watching but hoping he might not be, until she had righted her breaking of his sacred rules. She shivered in the cold wintery day. More snow was beginning to fall, and she had been too anxious to leave to be concerned with finding a cloak or heavy coat.
Had Rocky learned more about Karl and his abandonment of the Guild while she was missing?
Avoiding Guild Main – the headquarters of the assassins – was necessary, since her existence was not widely known, and she did not want wagging tongues to spread word to Karl.
When she reached the familiar footpaths and roads of the inner city, Aveline broke into a run to keep warm. Snow had been cleared or beaten down on the main walkways while four-foot tall piles sat on corners and blocked alleys. Several times, she was forced to take different routes than normal to avoid ice or snow piles.
She checked three of Rocky’s normal spots without finding him before stealing a coat from an unaware passerby. Aveline took up a position in an alley near one of the major suppliers of weapons to watch for Rocky. There was always a chance he was on a mission, but she suspected he would not accept one if she were missing. Assassins visited this merchant regularly to purchase new wares or trade worn ones or, in the case of Rocky, to test and handle a bone sword he could not yet afford to buy.
Several hours passed while she waited. Aveline remained at the mouth of the alley until her toes were numbed from the cold snow beneath her feet, and she was shivering. Only when she did not feel as if she could stand another second in that spot did she leave. Rocky had not been by all day, which left several more options as to where he could be within the inner city. None of them were appealing, though, not when she had not thought to bring weapons and dreaded running into anyone who might know her.
Impatient to find Rocky and upset with herself for being unprepared to face any problems she ran into, Aveline pushed away from the building she leaned against and left the weapons’ merchant area of the market. Rather than head back to the outer city and Tiana, she found herself on another familiar path, this one towards her home. She pulled up the hood of her coat far enough so no one could see her features as she passed the impoverished residents of the inner city.
Passing a butcher’s, she missed a step, recalling the source of the fresh meat hanging from hooks in the window. Aveline shuddered and suppressed a flicker of Devil’s fire within her.
One day, she would be ready to take on the brothels that sold young children to butchers to feed the inner city. One day, she would return to her birthright: the Guild. Both of those events would have to wait until after she had found Rocky and confronted Karl and learned the truth about Karl’s betrayal.
Aveline reached her father’s cabin and stopped across the street.
Her home had been burnt to the ground. She studied the ashes, distraught by the destruction, and feeling unusually vulnerable. Her whole life had passed in the cabin. She had always imagined she would live there
until she was old and white haired, caring for her elderly father, while they both reminisced about their exciting careers as assassins.
She could never go home again. The sense of being adrift, and overwhelmed, returned. She had no idea what to do, or where to live, when her mission protecting Tiana was finished. Arthur had promised to buy her a sponsor in the Guild, but if he died outside the city, he could not help her at all.
Had he known how tightly her fate would be tied to his own and Tiana’s?
Why did the Hanover siblings suddenly seem like they could become permanent fixtures in her life, when she wanted them to be a mission that helped her become who her father wanted her to be?
“What are we waiting for?” Rocky’s low voice melted from the air behind her.
Aveline released a sigh, grateful her friend was alive and well. “You. I’ve been stalking you all day.”
“I’ve been waiting for you where you work.”
She turned and saw him in the same ill-fitted slave’s clothing he had worn the last time they met. A smile escaped. Rocky was a welcome splash of darkness against the heavily falling snow.
“Where were you?” he asked.
She gave a bitter laugh. “Long story. Did Karl burn my home down?”
“Looters, I believe,” Rocky replied. “Karl’s deep in hiding. Some of the Guild members think he’s outside the city somewhere.”
“Where? Why?” she demanded.
Rocky smiled. “He angered a lot of people, and many of them happen to be assassins.”
It made sense, though she had yet to learn the full story behind his break from the Guild, aside from his anger at being shunned as its next leader. There had to be more, and a reason for his betrayal.
“Come on,” Rocky said. “I have a new place near here. We can talk.” His boots crunched in the snow as he walked away.
Aveline lingered, eyes falling again on her destroyed home. Her life had changed in ways she never would have guessed that night. Some part of her understood there was no going back, but she began to wonder how far off her intended path she had already drifted, and whether or not she would ever find her way back.
Chapter Sixteen
The second vision of Arthur came with twilight, when the world outside Tiana’s window was swallowed by a combination of snow flurries and darkness.
A draft colder than that emanating from the window brushed her. Tiana reached out blindly to steady herself as the image of Arthur appeared in her mind.
*
Cold … alone … bleeding … Arthur sat in a metal cage, left out to starve. His head rested against the frame of his cage while blood dripped from various wounds into the slushy pink snow beneath his body.
*
“Oh, Arthur!” she whispered. Her breath caught. The vision began to fade, and she started to open her eyes, when he appeared again. The man inside a beast.
The images morphed from night and cold into a cool spring morning. This time, she was able to make out her surroundings more than she had the first time she witnessed the man-beast hiding in the brush. She had returned to that moment in the future.
Tiana turned and made out the shapes of those she knew: Warner, Aveline, Rocky and two others. They were standing outside a tent, the only manmade structure within sight, speaking to a Native whose profile bore a scar down the side of his face.
In a flash, the scene changed again. One second, the beast was crouching in the brush, watching her friends. The next, he was a blur of fur and blood. The world righted itself, and she stared in shock at what remained.
Not one beast but two were fighting in the center of the small campsite. Rocky, Warner, and one of the strangers lay in pieces on the ground, while a smaller beast had materialized out of nowhere to challenge the first one.
The larger creature slammed the smaller one into the ground hard enough to daze it and then took a step back. The beast threw his head back and roared before he began to shrink and transform from a bear-like creature into a man once more. The man was watching the smaller beast stagger to its feet. Suddenly, as if sensing Tiana, as he had before, he spun to face her.
His features and body were blurry, and she was unable to make out the markings on his body, aside from their colors. Black, yellow, orange.
The man started towards her.
Tiana’s eyes snapped open. She trembled with fear and sorrow for those who had died. Unlike most visions, this one had seemed real.
She stared out the window. The visions had seemed brief – mere seconds – but twilight had turned into full night. She had never experienced a double vision such as this one. Nothing about the two scenes appeared connected, except that they both occurred outside of Lost Vegas. Why was Arthur not among those facing the beast? Or had he been in the tent? Where had the second beast come from?
Her heart was pounding with urgency, her hands trembling. Tiana went to the window, not realizing how hot she was until the cold night touched her warm cheeks. She leaned closer to the window, inviting the wind, while staring into the snowy night to see as far as she could.
Outside the city was dangerous.
Outside the city was Arthur.
How far in the future was her vision of Arthur dying in a cage? A dusting of snow covered the metal cage. Was he there now, or would he be there soon? The second occurred in spring, which put it far enough away she would know to warn those involved about the skinwalker lurking in the brush. She was outside the city, witnessing the event. Which meant, she had to leave at some point.
Why not now? Before I die on my birthday?
The vision of Arthur was in her mind. She dwelled on what she knew of the distances and timing separating the Winter Hunt and Arthur’s location and concluded it was not possible for her father’s men to reach him in time, especially when they did not know where to look for him.
Distraught, she paced and wrung her hands, helpless to assist her brother. She glanced from the locked and guarded door to the window.
“Wait for Aveline,” she whispered to the insistent urgency clamoring for her to act before it was too late. Aveline had agreed to think about saving Arthur but had appeared reluctant. How long would it take Tiana to convince her friend to accompany her? How long did Arthur have to live?
Warner crossed her thoughts again. He was located on the medical floor of the pyramid. If she could leave her room, she did not doubt she could find him.
Her distress leaked into her surroundings. The bed, chairs, wardrobes, trunks, and tables all floated in the air, while smaller items such as her brush and hairpins swirled in an invisible storm.
Tiana gasped, realizing her magic was free, and quickly ordered everything to return to its place. She looked around, expecting Matilda to scream at her for the display, but nothing happened.
“You have to stop this, Tiana,” she lectured herself. She wrapped a hand around her wrist, where she had last cut herself. Matilda had made her bleed herself whenever her magic acted up.
But Matilda was dead. When Tiana cut herself, she did so to relieve her anxiety and worry, not to try to rid her body of magic or as punishment.
Magic.
If she could lift random items around her room, could she unlock a door from within? For seven years, Matilda had forbidden her from using the magic and punished her when she did. Before the period of time when Matilda was in her life, Tiana used to amuse herself in her tiny little room by playing with her forbidden gift.
Had she forgotten all she once knew?
She crossed to the door and pressed her ear to it. No sound came from the space outside. It was too early for her father to retire, and her slaves disappeared until morning after her evening meal. On occasion, a Shield member would walk through on his rounds. For the moment, all was silent outside her room.
Tiana drew a deep breath and closed her eyes, focusing on the lock. She knew nothing of the mechanism inside the door, but she understood the bolts that slid into place when someone twisted the key. She fo
cused her errant magic on moving the bolt.
For a long, torturous moment, nothing happened. She released the breath she held and rested her hand on the door to help focus her energy. She tried again.
The locks slid out of the doorframe with a chorus of clicks.
Convinced someone was sure to notice, Tiana backed away from the door and waited.
No one charged through the door to beat her or yell at her. She ventured forward and rested her hand on the cool doorknob then twisted it. It gave, and the door opened.
She stood in the open doorway, gazing down the long hallway leading to her freedom. The apartment was quiet and warmly lit.
Why have I never tried this before? She thought, and answered her question as fast. Because I never had a compelling reason to leave.
Arthur had never been in danger before.
Frozen in her doorway, afraid to move, Tiana argued with herself quietly about whether or not she should continue and if so, how. She closed the door and walked away from it. Her agitated magic threw everything into the air, and even her hair billowed and floated around her.
She warmed her hands by the fire then crossed to the window to cool her body before returning. Her gaze fell to the clothing Aveline had set on the table near the hearth, and her inner turmoil silenced.
Tiana touched the slave’s clothing then picked up the tunic and shook it out. The light, gray clothing was meant for indoor wear, but she had the special cloak her brother had made for her, which would surely keep her warm anywhere.
With a flash of excitement, she limped to her wardrobe and flung it open. Her fingertips skimmed the formal clothing and cloaks, until she found the one she sought. Tiana pulled the thick cloak lined with furs captured by her brother from the wardrobe. Her heart raced, and she studied the slaves clothing and elegant cloak.
I can do this, she thought with recklessness she had never experienced in her life.