Assassin's End

by D. K. Holmberg

  “How many are we talking about?” I demanded.

  “You already know!”

  “Pretend I don’t.”

  “There are a dozen. Maybe a few more. The others have already been sent down the river. There’s someone in Eban—”

  I slammed his head against the wall, immediately wishing I would have more restraint.

  The noise echoed in the small room. His head bounced off the wall and then fell forward.

  Eban. I knew the market he meant and had more than a little experience with it. I hadn’t realized that trade started in Asador. I thought most of the courtesans came from Thyr or some of the outer islands. That was where I’d rescued others from, releasing them to be carried back upland by those like myself who opposed the process. When I’d met Carth, I had used her connections, bringing the women I discovered to the Binders, keeping them as safe as I could.

  Did Carth know what took place here?

  How was this connected, though?

  Letting the man back down to the ground, I paused at the door before heading out. The hall was still empty, and I didn’t hear anyone moving. Pausing at the next door, I wondered if there might be another like this man on the other side.

  The door wasn’t locked.

  I pushed it open slowly, ready to use the darts I held. After finding a prison of sorts, I didn’t know what I would find here, and I wanted to be ready for whatever these people might have hidden here.

  The room was empty.

  Not completely empty, though. There was a chain like I’d seen in the other room, only this chain hung without anyone attached to it. The air here smelled foul, like that of rot and death. It was an odor I knew all too well.

  Stepping back into the hall, I pulled the door closed.

  The next door was once again locked.

  Jamming my knife into the lock, I twisted, freeing the bolt from the doorjamb and twisting it so that it freed. The door came open with a squeal, louder than I preferred in the confines of this small hall.

  I don’t know what I expected to find on this side of the door. Certainly not what I came across.

  A woman who looked almost the same as the one I had subdued hung suspended from a chain, her wrists holding her up. Her feet were placed in water, and even from here I could see that the water had a certain chill to it. She lifted her head and considered me with a steely gaze, one that belied the condition she found herself, and nothing like the forced desperation I had seen from the man in the other room.

  “You are not with them,” she said.

  She spoke with the same edge of confidence that she regarded me with, and her words carried an accent that I hadn’t heard before.

  “How do you know?”

  Her gaze flicked to my knife. “You have no key.” She took the measure of me, her eyes sweeping along me before settling on my face once more. “I have heard of you, assassin. You should not be here.”

  “Who are you?” I asked.

  “No one. I am nothing.”

  “Why do they hold you?”

  She cocked her head. “You do not know? Strange. I thought that great assassin Galen of Elaeavn was always particular in his tasks. At least, that is the story I have heard.”

  I strode across the room and jabbed the knife into the cuff of her chain, prying it free. With a normal knife, I don’t know that I would have trusted it not to break, but this was a knife made by Lorst—at least, one he claimed he’d made—and the lorcith in the blade would not snap easily.

  The lock popped open.

  The woman stepped free, rubbing her wrists as she studied me. “Why did you free me?”

  “You’re one of her Binders.”

  She blinked. “Binders. I have not heard that term in many years. Perhaps once I was a Binder, but that has been a long time.”

  She took a deep breath, and as she did, I felt a surge of heat that took my breath away.

  With a movement so sudden I was barely able to react, she darted forward, grabbed the knife from my hand, and yanked on my arm, twisting me around.

  Rather than resist, I relaxed and rolled with the movement.

  She held the knife, her eyes shining with an expression that told me she thought she’d won.

  “I’m am sorry, Galen of Elaeavn, truly I am, but I cannot let you stop me.”

  She spun, a flurry of kicks and movement that happened faster than most were able to manage. It wasn’t movement like the Hjan; this was simply skilled movement, the kind that came from training and perhaps the addition of augmentation from skills I didn’t know about.

  I backed away from her.

  She slashed, using my knife. Did she think the knife the only way I had to defend myself?

  “You really don’t know anything about me,” I said, rolling to the side to avoid one of her attacks.

  “I have heard enough. When Galen decides he will kill, you are dead.”

  “I freed you.”

  “I can’t risk you making a different decision. This is better, I think.”

  Her foot grazed my skin, and I felt a surge, like that of heat and fire, come from the end of it.

  I was thrown back and struck the wall.

  My vision was dazed for a moment. Not long enough to lose consciousness, but enough that I nearly dropped my darts.

  She flipped toward me, coming feet first, the knife arcing as she landed.

  Two darts streaked from me, both coxberry tipped.

  They flew true.

  When they sank into her chest, she let out something like a sigh, the barest whisper of air that spoke of surprise. She stumbled and fell to the ground next to me.

  Grabbing her, I found she weighed nearly as much as the woman I’d encountered with Dolan. That wasn’t surprising, considering they seemed equally skilled.

  I couldn’t leave her here, but bringing her with me meant that I would abandon any other search, though attempting to move quietly through here now would be beyond even my skills. We’d made more than enough noise to draw attention.

  I slung her over my shoulders, slipped my knife back into the sheath, and started toward the courtyard.

  30

  I found Cael where I’d left her in the alley. Reaching her had been nearly impossible, especially since I’d made the decision to go back out through the courtyard, which meant scaling the wall and climbing across the roof, all while carrying the woman. Had I gone alone, I would have had an easier time, but I didn’t want to leave her behind until I knew why she had attacked and why she reminded me so much of Carth.

  Cael laughed when I reached her.

  “Why are you laughing at me?”

  “Because it seems like you can’t help yourself. You always seem to find someone else to drag along with you. And usually it’s some woman.”

  I dropped the woman next to the other with a grunt. “No, usually it’s some woman who nearly killed me, or could have killed me, or wanted to kill me.”

  “Yet you’ve never killed any of them.”

  “Not that you’ve seen.”

  “And her?” She nodded to the woman I’d brought.

  “She’s like Carth.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “As sure as I can be. I think she had been one of the Binders, but maybe she wasn’t anymore. She seemed upset when I suggested that she was.”

  “How do you expect us to get them all to where you intend? I saw how much you strained carrying her, so I suspect she’s more like this one.”

  “Yeah. Damn heavy.” I took a deep breath, peeking out of the alley to look down the street. I didn’t see anyone there. And I hadn’t seen anyone after fighting with this woman, either. That was strange. She’d been subdued, and the other man I’d come across had been subdued as well, but there wasn’t anyone else I found to explain who had captured them.

  I had to go back.

  “Galen—”

  She’d Read me. “There might be others, Cael. I need to know what is going on in there. This mig
ht not be what Carth thought, but there’s something going on there.” It had to be tied to what we were after. I didn’t know how, but everything was starting to seem related. Not only with the attack from Dolan and the woman who had Carth-like skills, but then the fact that there had been this captive. Maybe even the other man I’d come across.

  “No. Look!”

  I followed the direction of her gaze. The woman I’d just dosed twice with coxberry started moving. She moaned softly. Before I could react, and before I could even reach for another dart to ensure she stayed sedated, she rolled to the side.

  Her eyes sharpened quickly, and she took in me, then Cael, and then Dolan and the other woman.

  I got another two darts free. This time, one of them was terad tipped. I wasn’t going to risk Cael, not after what I’d seen this woman capable of doing.

  “You brought me out,” the woman said.

  She got to her feet and crouched, studying me.

  “I brought you out.”

  “Why?”

  I shook my head. Now that I had my darts in hand, I didn’t worry as much that she’d get the jump on me. I worried more for Cael, but I could see the way Cael watched her and wondered if she managed to Read anything from her. If she was like the other woman—or like Carth—probably not.

  “I haven’t decided what I’m going to do with you.”

  “You don’t intend to kill me.”

  “That’s not going to be my decision.”

  “Who do you intend to let decide? This one?”

  She made a movement toward Cael, but Cael seemed to anticipate it and stepped back, just out of reach. Had she Read her, or did she use one of her other abilities? It was possible she could See what might happen as well. I’d heard of another assassin with that gift, and he had been deadly.

  The woman smiled at Cael. “More than you appear, aren’t you? I suppose, if you’re with him, then you would be, wouldn’t you?”

  The woman backed into the alley. I didn’t need to be a Seer to know that if she got too far from me, she’d make a run for it. She’d proven that she couldn’t beat me, at least not without more weapons, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t faster than me. Considering what I’d seen of her, it was likely that she was faster than me.

  She started to edge into the shadows. If she were anything like Carth, she would be able to blend into them so that I’d lose her completely.

  “Carth,” I said.

  She stopped. I had hoped that she would.

  “I wasn’t going to decide what do with you, but seeing as how you have familiarity with the Binders, and that you fight more like Carth, I thought I’d have her decide what to do with you.”

  The woman shook her head, continuing to move back toward the end of the alley. “Galen of Elaeavn, you are mistaken. Carth of C’than is no more.”

  I shrugged. “If that’s what you believe.”

  “That’s what I know.”

  “Talia knew the same, but she was proven wrong as well.”

  The woman froze. “She… she lives?” She took a step toward me.

  I nodded. “Why were you captured?”

  Her face clouded. “A bounty,” she said.

  “What kind of bounty?”

  “The kind I thought you had come to collect.”

  I glanced at Cael, but she shook her head slightly. She didn’t know, which meant I still had to get answers from this woman. “Who had the bounty on you?”

  She frowned, her eyes darting toward Dolan, and then the other woman. “You don’t know? I thought…”

  “You thought what?”

  “You have collected others, Galen of Elaeavn. You do not work with them?”

  “With who?”

  “The Hjan.”

  My mind started racing, trying to understand what I had gotten myself into. One thing was certain—this was all related. Not only to the crystal still missing, but to whatever Lorst dealt with, and what happened to Carth, and maybe even what Talia had been involved with before I found her. All of it had to be related somehow.

  “Why would the Hjan have a bounty on you?” I asked.

  “Not only me. Anyone who has worked with the C’than in the past. All are in danger.”

  That explained Talia then, though it didn’t explain everything. “And the others in that place?”

  “How many others did you find?”

  “Who are they?” I asked.

  “How many others?” she asked again, stepping toward me, her eyes blazing with intensity.

  I held two darts out. “Come too close, and I won’t wait for Carth to decide what to do with you. I’ll decide myself and deal with the consequences.”

  She eyed the darts and then laughed. “That is your weapon?”

  “Terad,” I said, shaking the one with the terad tip. “If you’re lucky, I’ll only use coxberry again.”

  She studied the dart with renewed appreciation. “How many did you find?” Her tone softened, and she stayed in place, seemingly not willing to come any closer.

  “One. A man chained like yourself.”

  Her gaze looked behind me.

  Without thinking about what I did, I spun.

  That was a mistake.

  And maybe the one she had anticipated.

  She reached me before I could turn back to her.

  She grabbed each of my hands, clamping them around the darts.

  I tried jerking my hand free, but I couldn’t. She was stronger than me.

  The end of the alley was empty. She’d used it as a ruse to draw my attention, and it had worked. Now, if I didn’t shake her off me, Cael might be in danger. More danger, at least.

  “Where is Carth?” she asked.

  “Why should I tell you?”

  “Because I intend to finish what I started,” she said.

  I tried ripping my arms free but couldn’t. I was stuck.

  She shoved me forward, sending me against the nearest building, where I cracked my head. Like with the blast she’d used when we’d fought the last time, I was left dazed, but not unconscious. I tried pushing around, spinning to force her against the wall, but she had leverage.

  The woman forced me to my knees.

  Then she started bending my wrists, twisting the darts so that they would come at me.

  I didn’t fear the coxberry. I’d built up immunity to it over the years, dozing so that if I were attacked in the same way that I often attacked others, I wouldn’t be incapacitated. A large enough dose would affect me, but a large enough dose would affect anyone. What I had on my dart would slow me a little, but even that effect wouldn’t last long.

  The terad was a different story.

  There was no immunity to it, and I didn’t have the necessary ingredients for a full reversal. I might be able to bide my time and could work to find a herbalist, but that would require me to be lucky more than anything else, not something that I wanted to count on when my life was at stake.

  The darts continued to twist toward my face.

  “What did you do to Carth?” I asked.

  “The Hjan pay well, especially for her. I think they will offer much for you as well. Then your girl—”

  She fell off my back.

  I jumped and spun around as quickly as I could. One of my darts stuck from her back.

  Cael nodded. “Thought you needed some help.”

  I jabbed another coxberry dart into the woman’s back for good measure.

  “What now?” Cael asked.

  “Now we need to find Carth. I need to know why this woman tried to kill her.”

  31

  When we got to the house, we expected to find Talia inside. We found the home empty.

  There was no sign of Carth, and no sign of Talia. It was as if neither had ever been there before.

  I dropped the two captives to the floor. I’d managed to bring them with me by holding them against each arm, looking like I escorted two very intoxicated women back to my home. Cael managed to carry Do
lan, propping him against her as she walked, grunting every few steps.

  We had to stop several times along the way to dose both women with more coxberry. Dolan stayed sedated, though, at the last stop, I had hit him with another dose just to be safe.

  “Where would they have gone?” Cael asked.

  “They shouldn’t have gone anywhere,” I said, though who was I to think that Carth would remain in the same place? She had never done that in all the time that I’d known her. Most of the time, she simply reappeared, surprising me when she did.

  “What do you want to do with them?” Cael asked.

  I needed to secure them in such a way that they couldn’t escape, at least not until I knew what else they might do. As I considered my options, I laughed. “I should have left her where I found her,” I said. “At least there they had some way of holding her.”

  “What did they use?”

  “Chains,” I started but frowned as I considered. It had been more than only chains, though. There had been some sort of water component, and now that I’d experienced the nature of her ability, I suspected it was tied to whatever talents she possessed.

  “We don’t have chains,” she said.

  “We have something that might work as well.” I reached into my pouch and pulled out the vial of the thick liquid I’d made when trying to hold Josun Elvraeth. Slithca worked to hold those with sliding abilities, and separated most with abilities of the Great Watcher from them, so I had to hope that it could do the same with whatever these abilities were.

  Drawing up the slithca required a different type of patience. The syrup was thick, and it might be better if I could coax them to drink it, but I didn’t have that luxury, and I wanted to ensure they got the dose I needed.

  When I finished with three darts, I dosed each of them. I included Dolan, especially since I knew he could Slide. I kept a supply of coxberry ready, with a dozen darts loaded, and sat back.

  “Now we wait.”

  I searched through the small room for anything I could use to bind them. I found a coil of rope and wrapped it around their arms, binding them to their legs. With both women, I added an extra few loops beyond what I would normally use. They wouldn’t be getting away from me easily.