Assassin's End

by D. K. Holmberg

  I wasn’t entirely certain that I’d read the situation as well as Cael likely had. Then again, I had to rely on my Sight and the fact that I could tell responses from other means rather than Cael’s ability to simply reach into their minds.

  Could she access the woman?

  I took a step back so that I could see her more easily and noted that she shook her head once.

  If she couldn’t reach the woman, she was protected somehow.

  Like Lorst. Or, more likely, like Carth.

  I decided to gamble. Sometimes when dealing with Carth and those she worked with, I had learned I had to risk certain things. Before I’d learned Talia’s role, I had to act blindly, but once I learned how she helped coordinate the Binders, I had someone who I thought would have given me an insider opinion with them.

  “Just like you know something about someone else,” I said to her.

  Her eyes narrowed slightly, and her hand moved to the sword, almost more quickly than I could track.

  Damn.

  I’d read it wrong.

  28

  The woman unsheathed her sword and sliced in a fluid motion, one that would have taken off my wrist had I not noted how she moved.

  I spun to the side, dancing around the tables arranged near us, readying my darts and already beginning to plan my attack. I’d gotten complacent in time away from fighting. There would have been a time when I would have been ready the moment Dolan walked over to our table. The fact that I was not made me all too aware of how much had changed.

  But I could quickly default back into that mindset. I took in everything in a heartbeat. The readiness of the others I faced, the spacing of the tables within the tavern, the movement of the servers, and even the way the musicians timed their songs.

  Cael pressed backward, reacting more to me than to the others.

  Dolan watched with a lazy sort of interest.

  Was this for show?

  Damn. I couldn’t kill this woman, not until I knew what she was after, and until I knew for certain whether she worked with Carth—or maybe she worked against her.

  I flipped a dart to the wide man.

  He barely seemed to register that it sunk into the fold of his neck. Coxberry worked on almost anyone, and I figured it would only take a moment before it set in for him. As I waited, I flicked a dart at Dolan. If nothing else, I’d take him down, bind him, and get answers.

  He moved quickly to the side.

  Too quickly.

  With a swirl of color, I noted that he Slid. It was barely anything, and he didn’t move too far to the side, but enough that I noticed. I don’t know how many would—and I suspect that was his point.

  Damn.

  “How many like you are there?” I muttered.

  That made Dolan freeze.

  Long enough that my next dart struck home.

  Coxberry acted faster with him than it did on the wide man. Dolan sank toward the floor. I spun and flipped another dart at the big man before he could reach Cael. Deciding I wanted some insurance that worked, I decided to send another at him as well. All struck home, but he still stood. Maybe slowed—though I wasn’t even sure of that—but still standing.

  I didn’t want to use anything more toxic, and I still had to worry about the woman. I could feel her near me and was all too aware of the sword she had out and the way she swung it, knocking down the three darts I flipped at her.

  I only had a couple darts remaining. Half of them were coxberry. The rest were terad—which would be fatal. I used the coxberry on the large man.

  After the sixth dart struck home, he finally sagged toward the ground.

  “About time.”

  I reached for the knife I carried, not willing to use terad—yet. I would if it meant my survival and especially if it meant Cael’s survival.

  She sliced toward me.

  Any hope I had that she might have attacked for show and for Dolan was gone. Maybe she still didn’t know how to react, or maybe there was more going on here than I understood. That was most likely.

  The others in the tavern had backed away or left completely, giving us all the space we needed. “You know Carth,” I said, ducking from her next attack while trying to ready another few coxberry-tipped darts.

  With Sight, I was able to catch the tension in her muscles in the moments before she attacked. Without it, I suspected I would be dead, but then, I would have been dead dozens of times in the years before now had I not possessed my Sight.

  “You fight like her.”

  A hint of a smile crossed her lips. “If you’ve faced Carth, you would not be standing.”

  “Not faced. Fought beside.”

  The woman hesitated.

  It was the opening I needed. My dart flicked past her sword and sunk into her neck.

  She blinked and tried to slash at me, but I’d concentrated the coxberry before dosing her, so it left her quickly weakened.

  I didn’t know how long it would last on her. With other Binders, I had experienced how briefly the sedative worked on them. It was possible this woman would have a similar lack of reaction.

  “We should hurry,” Cael said.

  I glanced up, noting the others in the tavern and how they watched me. I wouldn’t be able to move all three of them, but really only wanted to talk to Dolan and the woman most of all. I didn’t know if I could even move the big guy if it came to it anyway.

  “Sounds about right,” I said. “Can you carry her?”

  The woman was small and slight, but with as quickly as she moved, she would be solid muscle and heavier than she appeared. I hoped Cael could carry her—or at least drag her from the tavern. I lifted Dolan and slung him over my shoulders. The server who’d directed him to our table watched me with widened eyes.

  “He’s not dead,” I said.

  I didn’t really need to explain but felt better doing it.

  The woman turned back to the kitchen, leaving me with Dolan slung over my shoulders. Cael grabbed the woman but couldn’t lift her over her shoulders the same way I did with Dolan. She struggled to move her, barely able to drag her more than a few feet.

  “She’s heavier than she should be,” Cael said.

  “You want to carry him?”

  Without hesitating, she said, “Yes.”

  I glanced around the tavern. Most eyes had turned away as if making a point of looking anywhere but at us, though a few still kept their focus on us. A few sent furtive glances at me, and when they noticed that I watched them, they turned quickly away.

  Setting Dolan down, I noted that he groaned softly. We didn’t have much time before he was awake again.

  Cael lifted Dolan, managing with more strength than I would have expected after seeing how difficult a time she had with the woman. She propped him against her, making it appear like he was nothing more than an intoxicated lover leaning on her for support. It was less noticeable than how I would have carried him.

  When I tried to lift the woman, I grunted with the effort. She was small, and thin, but in spite of that, she was incredibly heavy. Somehow, her compact frame managed to feel twice as heavy as Dolan. With great effort, I got her standing, but didn’t want to risk throwing her over my shoulders like I had with Dolan. If I did, I didn’t know if I could keep her there, or if I would end up dropping her.

  “See? Heavier than she looks,” Cael said with a smile as we reached the door.

  We made it into the street. A quiet murmuring began as we left the tavern and I wondered if we would be chased.

  Motioning Cael into a nearby alley, I waited.

  “What is it?” she whispered.

  “Just a hunch,” I said.

  Moments after we left, I saw a woman, one who’d watched us with a flat expression during the fight, come out of the tavern. She cast her gaze in either direction down the street before hurrying off. Away from the docks, I noticed.

  “What is it?”

  “Assassin’s hunch. We should follow her.”

&
nbsp; “With them?” Cael asked.

  “I don’t want to leave them. Dolan definitely knows something, and I’d like to learn more about this woman.”

  “You think she’s like Carth?”

  “I don’t know. They have something similar about them, though I’m not exactly certain what it is. Before releasing her back into the city, I think I’d like to know.”

  “Are you going to be able to carry her?” Cael asked.

  Normally, I’d laugh at a question like that, but even now, she weighed on me.

  The waitress neared a corner. If we didn’t get moving, I’d lose her.

  “Going to have to,” I said.

  With a grunt, I started into the street carrying the woman. Cael followed, somehow making Dolan leaning against her seem natural, though at night like this, having a drunken man leaning against a woman wasn’t all that uncommon. We hurried along the street, turning down the side street where the woman had disappeared.

  Buildings down this street were closely built, and all a single story. None had signs marking shops, and most had faded paint. A few had boarded windows. While the street we’d just turned off of had a smattering of people, enough that we could blend in, here there were only a few. The waitress moved as a darkened shape in the distance before stopping at a small building and hurrying inside.

  “Where do you think she’s going?” Cael asked.

  “That’s what I need to find out.”

  I glanced around. We were near a small alleyway, still near enough to the main street. Pulling out a few darts, I loaded them with coxberry from my pouch and poked them into both Dolan and the woman’s neck. Another dose of coxberry wouldn’t normally be necessary, but I wanted to be certain.

  “Wait here with them,” I said.

  “We could leave them and go together.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t want to lose them, and I want to know where she went.”

  “What happens if they start to wake again?”

  I handed her two loaded darts of coxberry. “This should keep them sedated again if needed.” The Great Watcher knew I hoped it wasn’t needed. If it was… that meant that something unusual would have happened when I went after the waitress “If I’m gone for too long, and you’ve used this,” I said, shaking the dart, “then return to Talia. Let her know what happened.” If anyone would be able to help me, were something odd to occur, it would be Carth, and I suspected Talia would be able to reach her now that they had reconnected.

  “Galen—”

  “We need to find the crystal. That means finding the other group of Forgotten. That’s what matters now. These two might know something, but she definitely did.”

  Cael nodded and settled Dolan onto the ground next to her. “Be fast.”

  “As much as I can.”

  Giving her a soft kiss on the lips, I tried not to think about how I left Cael in the alley with Dolan and a woman who would be able to harm her if she woke, and hurried down the street.

  29

  As I ran, I loaded the rest of my darts. Most I filled with coxberry, but I saved a few that I used with terad, filling them with enough of the toxin that I wouldn’t have to worry about someone surviving it. Since leaving Eban, I hadn’t used terad nearly as much as I had before, but there was always a place for something that would work quickly and was always effective. The added benefit was that it was painless as well. I didn’t need screams chasing me.

  A few of the small buildings had candles flickering behind the windows. One appeared to have light filtering from behind the boarded-up windows. Occasional shadows moved, but none with the same sort of unnatural movement that I’d seen from Carth.

  When I reached the building where the woman had disappeared, I paused, listening.

  There was no doubting that my hearing had changed, not anymore. I wondered if it had anything to do with exposure to the crystal or if there was something else I could attribute the increased sensitivity to. As I paused in front of the door, I focused on the sounds on the other side, noting a creaking of wood, a shuffling of feet along the floorboards, and the soft murmuring of voices. There was a hint of agitation in the murmuring.

  Testing the door, I found it locked.

  That didn’t surprise me, and I had enough experience bypassing locks if it came to that, but I wondered if there might not be another way in.

  Making my way around the side of the building, I scaled the wall, using the nearby home for support as I did, and reached the roof. From here, the outline of this section of the city was easy to see. The roofs were closer together than they were in other places, close enough that it reminded me in some ways of Eban. Carefully, I moved toward the back of the building, looking for another entry.

  There was a back courtyard.

  That was unusual in most places, but compared to what I saw from my vantage of the other buildings, it was especially unusual here. Dropping into the middle of the courtyard, I pressed against the brick wall as I took a quick survey.

  A single door led into the courtyard. There would be no other access. A small circular ring had been set for a fire, but off to the side rather than in the center. A pair of chairs rested against the wall.

  What really caught my eye was the row of swords hanging from hooks.

  All gleamed with a soft sheen, catching the sliver of light of the moon. With my Sight, I didn’t need more than that. They were sharp, and the curved edge of the blade reminded me of what the woman had carried rather than the typical short sword I encountered.

  What was this place?

  I studied the ground and noted that the dirt had a packed appearance. It wasn’t a far stretch to think that this had been used as a place to practice. Given the relatively tight confines, I had to admit that using sharpened blades to practice here impressed me.

  A soft scraping sound caught my attention. It was inside the home, but moving closer.

  I readied my darts. I would have to act quickly, especially if whoever was here had a real skill with the sword.

  The door didn’t open as I expected it would.

  I stayed close to the wall and moved gradually closer to the door. This would be the other way in, and if it were open, I’d have to be ready for whatever was on the other side. Maybe there would be nothing, and maybe this would end up being a waste of my time, but maybe it would give me some insight about what was going on here. There was something that I didn’t fully understand, something more than simply about Dolan and the strange woman who had attacked with skill nearing Carth’s.

  Waiting by the door, I listened for any sound that would indicate someone was on the other side. I didn’t hear anything.

  Testing the door, I found it open.

  Given there was no other way into the courtyard, I had expected to find it unlocked. The other side of the door led into a narrow corridor. Doors lined the hall, all closed. A single lantern along the hall granted light.

  What was this place?

  It wasn’t anything I expected to find, nothing that I would have expected to see inside a building like this. I didn’t know what this was, only that it reminded me in some ways of the corridor where I’d met Talia when coming to Asador.

  Was that what this was about?

  Something scraped across wood.

  The sound was nearby, but not coming down the hall. This seemed like it came from one of the closed-off rooms.

  I made my way along the hall and stopped at the door where I thought I heard the scraping coming from. The door was locked. Strange.

  Using one of my knives, I pried it open.

  When I pushed it open, I wasn’t sure what I’d find. I discovered an older man chained to the wall, his thick beard streaked with gray and his arm scarred where the chains held him. His head jerked around when he saw me looking at him, and a dark smirk crossed his face.

  “You’ve come to torment me again? What more do you think you’ll get out of me? I’ve said all I know.”

  I began to pull the d
oor closed behind me but reconsidered and finally left it slightly ajar. I didn’t want to get trapped and have to fight my way out.

  “What have you told the others?” I asked when I pulled the door closed.

  “A new tactic. Ignorance does suit any of you.”

  “Give me a reason to keep you alive,” I said. I’d interrogated men before and had experience with those who didn’t want to say anything, but usually, I was the only one doing the questioning. This time, I would have to determine exactly what he might have shared, and work through how it mattered to his captives.

  “I’ve given you a reason,” the man said. There was desperation in his voice that hadn’t been there at first. Whatever had happened to him had been harsh.

  I stared at him.

  I could hold a dangerous glare if I needed, and when facing someone I needed information from, I could be especially intimidating. Most of the time, I used the advantage of my height or the fact that working all the years that I did with Isander had given me quickness and strength, but sometimes it was the color of my eyes. There weren’t all that many of my kind outside of Elaeavn.

  The man didn’t seem surprised by the color of my eyes, and the height wouldn’t worry him either, especially if he had been interrogated by others like me. That left strength.

  There would have been other ways to question him, but I didn’t have time for niceties, and I didn’t know if they had already used them on him. Maybe that was why he’d come to desperation.

  Crossing the distance between us in a single stride, I grabbed him and jerked him off the ground, holding him above the ground with one arm. His already wild eyes widened even more, and he tried kicking and thrashing but chained as he was, there wasn’t much he could do that would get him free.

  “Tell me why we should keep you alive.”

  “I don’t know where they’ve taken the others,” he said. “I’ve told the others the same thing. Harming me won’t change that!”