Assassin's End

by D. K. Holmberg

  Once on the roof, I wasn’t surprised to see Nyelle reach the same vantage as quickly as I had. She moved in ways that were like Talia, who had moved in ways like Carth. The other A’ras followed, and soon the rooftop was covered with people.

  “We should split up,” I suggested. “If we all come through the courtyard, we won’t have enough room to maneuver. The hall is narrow.”

  Nyelle nodded and whispered something quietly to a slender man next to her. He listened and nodded, motioning to six of the A’ras to follow, before they jumped back to the street. “Two minutes, Galen of Elaeavn.”

  We didn’t have much time then.

  I followed the roofline toward the courtyard and had started to climb down when I hesitated.

  Something didn’t feel right.

  One of the A’ras didn’t hesitate and jumped down, landing in the middle of the courtyard, the same place where I had landed when I first came here. As soon as he did, something changed.

  It was like the temperature dropped quickly.

  The A’ras man jerked, his body freezing in place. I peered into the courtyard, looking for anything that would help me know what happened there, but couldn’t find anything. Other than the A’ras, it was empty.

  “What weakness do you have?” I asked Nyelle quickly.

  Her eyes were fixed on the man.

  “Damn it! I need to know so I can help!”

  “Our power comes from the Flame of A’ras. If they counter the flame…”

  That explained the cold and might explain why the woman had been chained in water as she had. “Good thing I’m not A’ras,” I said.

  I pushed off into the courtyard.

  When I landed, I felt the cold seep into my bones. It was powerful, and colder than any winter I’d ever experienced. The only thing it lacked was snow.

  The A’ras moved, but he did so slowly as if his legs didn’t work the way they should.

  Mine didn’t work all that well either. The cold seeped through me, stronger than me.

  I scanned the courtyard but saw nothing to explain it. Whatever had caused this was on the other side. And if the A’ras couldn’t use their ability, that meant that I had to go in alone.

  It was a position I was far too familiar with.

  33

  The door resisted me this time. Whereas before, I had used my knife and managed to pry it open; this time, it refused to unlock. I either had to take a run at it or find something with more leverage.

  I looked back to the A’ras and his sword.

  Leverage.

  “Sorry,” I said, slipping it from his frozen grip. “I’m only going to borrow this.”

  When I used the sword on the door, I slipped it along the frame and started wiggling it from side to side until it penetrated the wood, giving me more of an opening. Then, with a small gap there, I forced it through and then pulled on it.

  With a loud groan, the door moved.

  When it opened, it did so with a thunderous crack.

  Whatever advantage we might have had was gone.

  I jumped into the opening, readying my darts. The lantern that had been here before was out, the light dimmed, and much like outside, the hall was bitterly cold.

  Had they assumed the A’ras had attacked?

  I glanced down the hall, thinking of the cell I’d found the woman occupying. They had wanted her for a reason. I didn’t know what that was, but they had wanted the other man for a reason, too. I had thought it had something to do with him smuggling girls, but what if I’d been wrong?

  Rushing down the hall, I stopped at the door where I’d found him. When I pushed it open, he still hung suspended from the chains. His room wasn’t as cold as the others, but unpleasantly cold nonetheless.

  This time, he didn’t even bother looking up.

  “Why do they hold you?” I asked quickly.

  The man looked up. His gaunt face looked haunted. “You’ve come to torment me again?”

  “I’m not with them. Why do they hold you?”

  “You struck me like you were.”

  I hurried over to him. “I needed answers. You had them. Tell me. Why. Do. They. Hold. You?”

  He looked up, studying me and seeming to note the color of my eyes for the first time. “They think there’s something I can offer the Hjan.”

  Again with the Hjan. I was getting tired of it.

  “What do they think you can offer?”

  The man tried shaking his head, but he was weak.

  “Do you have any abilities?” I asked.

  His body stiffened.

  “They had one of the A’ras here as well. Do you know anything about that?”

  “I have nothing to do with that A’ras,” he spat.

  Not the A’ras. The man had said that A’ras.

  “What did she do to you?”

  He looked up at me, his gaze hotter than it had been before. “She did nothing to me.”

  “Then why do you care so much about her?” I was wasting time, but I needed the answers.

  “I don’t care about her. I care about what she did.”

  “You think she killed Carth.”

  He swallowed, and I knew I had read the situation right.

  “Carth lives. I have seen her.”

  “Carth doesn’t live. Whoever you have seen is an imposter.”

  “I’ve known Carth long enough that I would know an imposter. She lives.”

  “You… know Carth?”

  “As well as anyone can know her. She’s the reason I’m here now.”

  That wasn’t entirely true, but it didn’t matter if he didn’t know that.

  “What power do you have? Why would the Hjan want you?”

  “They want to use my skills,” he finally answered.

  “And what skills are those?”

  He sighed. “They would have me serve as a forger. With as many Hjan as they seek to create, they need others who can forge metal.”

  “A smith?”

  He nodded.

  Lorst would want to meet this man, I suspected. I didn’t know exactly what he meant that the Hjan wanted to create others, but I knew I couldn’t leave him here. If he sided with Carth, that would be enough reason to help him, but I had the sense that everyone held in these cells might be a danger if the Hjan managed to obtain them.

  I used my knife to pry open his chains.

  He stood unsteadily and tried to walk, but each step faltered.

  “Stay here. Get out when it’s safe,” I said, reaching the door.

  “Where are you going?” the forger asked.

  “To stop them. First I have to find some way to warm up the damn hall so the A’ras with me can actually help.”

  His eyes widened. “That… I might be able to help with.”

  As I made my way through the hall, stopping at each door along the way, I noted how the temperature in the hall slowly started to increase. It wasn’t comfortable yet, but whatever the forger did seemed to work.

  I didn’t risk slowing other than to peek inside each of the doors I came across. Most had chains, but they were empty. A few had stains telling me that they had not been for long. Near the end of the hall, I found another door with a young woman on the other side.

  She stood in a pool of icy water, and her arms were chained over her head. When I entered, she barely bothered looking up.

  “Go ahead and do what you will to me,” she said. “I will not tell you anything.”

  “Good. I don’t want to know anything.”

  She looked up then and blinked. “You.”

  I frowned. “Me?”

  “You should not be here.”

  “Where should I be?”

  “Anywhere else. They intend for you to be here. They want to draw her.”

  “Who?”

  “Don’t play the fool. They know about your connection to her.”

  It wouldn’t be Cael. There wasn’t any reason for the Hjan to be interested in her, other than the fact
that she had ties to the Elvraeth council. That meant one of the other women I knew. There was only one I could think of who the Hjan would be interested in.

  Had this all been a way to draw her out?

  “She’s dead,” I said.

  The woman fixed me with a stare stronger than I would have managed were I in her situation. “Do you really believe that?”

  I doubted I could hide my response, and didn’t try.

  Instead, I unlocked her chains and helped her away from the wall.

  A part of me worried that she might attack. The last A’ras I attempted to rescue from here had nearly killed me—twice. But this woman did nothing other than stretch. As she did, I felt heat start to ooze away from her as she used this A’ras flame Nyelle had told me about.

  In the hall, I motioned toward the courtyard. “Go that way to find Nyelle.”

  Her eyes widened slightly, enough to tell me that she recognized the name. “Where will you go?”

  “I haven’t done what I came here to do.”

  “And what is that?”

  “Something stupid.” As I stepped toward the end of the hall, I paused. “How many of them are there?”

  “You risk yourself, and you don’t know what you will find?” she asked, her tone incredulous.

  “Not normally, but for this…”

  The woman turned and joined me at the door. “I will come with you, then.”

  “No.”

  “You don’t want help?”

  “I don’t know if I can trust the help,” I admitted.

  “I have served with Carth of C’than since she was only known as Carthenne Rel. I have known her nearly my entire life. I have counted her as one of my closest friends. If whatever you do is on her behalf, I must help.”

  I stared at her, uncertain what to say at first. “Her name is Carthenne?”

  The woman smiled. “Do not tell her I shared that.”

  “And you? Who are you?”

  “I am Alison Al-shad. First Daughter of the Al-shad family and heir to Nyaesh.”

  I suspected I should be awed by that, but I had trouble getting impressed by titles. I’d seen too many claim titles they didn’t deserve, and others create titles that had nothing to do with what they actually did.

  “I’m Galen.”

  Alison sniffed, shaking her head. “You could be no one else.”

  I didn’t know if that was a compliment or a slight.

  I didn’t have a chance to decide. The door opened, and chaos came through.

  34

  A man carrying two swords, both spinning wildly, emerged from the doorway. He had an oiled beard and an otherwise bald head. When he saw us, he danced forward, his sword moving faster than I could follow.

  I flicked a pair of darts at him and sliced them from the air.

  Alison backed away, putting the wall behind her. I thought that a mistake until I noted the way the man pressed her toward the wall, and then she seemed to climb it, flipping behind him. She kicked, spinning as she did and catching him in the backs of his legs. The man fell with a grunt.

  That was all I managed to see.

  Another two attackers came through the doorway. One carried a slender sword of Neeland, a blade I knew would be poisoned. The other drew my attention the most.

  He had a fresh scar along the side of his face, running from his temple all the way down to his chin. Another followed, this an older woman, also with a long scar, equally fresh.

  Hjan.

  I barely had time to reach into my pouch for terad-tipped darts.

  Now wasn’t the time to waste with coxberry. This needed to be fast, and I needed to ensure those I caught with the darts didn’t get back up.

  The two Hjan split to either side of me. The sellsword approached from the middle, his face a tight mask of anger. I’d killed enough sellswords that I wondered if he knew any of them.

  I would have to time this well.

  The Hjan could be tricky, especially if they were able to Slide. And I didn’t want to catch Alison. Which meant I couldn’t splay the darts wildly. With terad, all I needed was one to catch. If I could manage that, the rest would take care of itself.

  Behind the Hjan, I noted Alison jumped, flipping over her attacker.

  I flipped my darts all at once.

  These were high-quality darts, sourced by Carth herself, and I had little doubt that they would fly true. The Hjan noted the movement, and both flickered with swirls of color.

  As they did, I sent four more darts, two for each, where the shimmering color reappeared.

  Both connected.

  The Hjan fell, dropping to the ground.

  In spite of a dart sticking from his neck, the sellsword didn’t.

  “We’ve learned we need to protect against terad with you,” the man said.

  He slashed, and I rolled.

  I had only my darts and a knife, not enough to face a Neelish sellsword, especially not if he was immune to my most potent toxin. I had others but wouldn’t have the time to tip them, not if I intended to stay alive.

  He darted forward, stabbing as he did. It forced me to turn and then roll. Each movement prevented me from attacking, a fact I think he knew—and counted on.

  His sword jabbed forward again, this time almost connecting with me.

  I flipped the two remaining darts I held.

  Both stuck in his neck, but they barely slowed him.

  He grinned.

  Then he sliced down with his sword.

  I was near the wall and couldn’t move anywhere. He’d forced me back, pushing me into a corner where there was no place else for me to go. In the moment I watched the sword arc toward me, I felt peace.

  I wasn’t dying an assassin.

  Whatever else, I had come here for a different reason. The assassin was gone. Cael would be pleased, even as she mourned. I hoped she Read me now, and hoped she knew that I had found a measure of peace.

  Before the sword reached my face, another caught it.

  Alison turned the blade up.

  She held both of the other swordsman’s blades and flicked her wrist, twisting so that she feinted in an attack before drawing it back. The sellsword shifted his attention to her, his sword a blur.

  I had thought the first man deadly, but seeing the sellsword attack, I realized I had misjudged.

  And as skilled as he might be, the fluid way that Alison moved, the easy way she deflected each attack and pushed the sellsword back, told me that she was even more skilled.

  From the look of concentration on his face, the sellsword knew it.

  With another twist of the swords, Alison caught him on the arm.

  His sword clattered to the ground.

  He lowered his shoulder and tried lunging at her but she caught him in the chest, and he fell.

  “You… are outstanding,” he said.

  She wiped the blood off the blade and kicked the other sword over to me. “Take it, Galen. You might need something other than your little darts.”

  “My little darts have kept me alive.”

  “Your little darts almost got you killed.”

  I grabbed the sword, testing it briefly. It wasn’t the first time I’d held a Neelish sword, and knew to be careful with the blade. They were sharp but poisoned, a hallmark of the sellswords.

  “These were not the Hjan I’ve faced before,” Alison said.

  “They had fresh scars,” I said.

  “Hmm. Perhaps that is all it was.”

  As we moved through the door, I let Alison lead. I had a new respect for the skills of whoever had captured her.

  The other side of the door led to a wide stair going down. There was another corridor, but it was closed. I imagined it opened to the rest of the house, and that was what interested me. Whatever else we did, I suspected we needed to go down.

  “Where does this lead?” I asked, nodding to the stairs.

  She shook her head. “I’ve only seen my cell.”

  We star
ted down. “How did they capture you?”

  “Betrayal.”

  “One of yours?”

  Alison glanced over at me. “Why?”

  “There’s a woman… I thought she was with Carth until she attacked me. She admitted she was the one who killed Carth.”

  “The one Carth allowed to think had killed her.”

  “Why?” I hoped for more of an answer than Carth had given me.

  “You know why, Galen.”

  We reached the bottom of the stairs. It was cooler here, but it was a natural cool, nothing like what I’d experienced on the upper level. The air held an earthy odor but mixed with a dampness. Distantly, there came a steady rushing sound, like waves splashing.

  This likely connected to the shore.

  “She told me she wanted to draw out the Hjan, but she hasn’t explained why.”

  “Carth has lost much to the Hjan. It took her giving up what she wanted to ensure peace, to see the accords were signed. And they held. For many years, they held. When the Hjan broke the accords, she took it personally.”

  I hadn’t known that Carth had been responsible for the accords. I knew that she was upset when they failed, but then, that had happened when I’d first met her. Had all this been taking place in the time since?

  It seemed impossible to believe, but what other answer was there?

  The space here opened up into a wide hall. I stood, hesitating for a moment, not certain whether anyone would attack. Three doors stood opposite me, all closed.

  “Which one do we choose?” I asked.

  “I think we have to try each.”

  The longer I was here, the more I felt confident that the answer to what we searched for would be found, but I still didn’t know who we faced, or why. Alison didn’t seem interested in sharing either, though in that she was more like Carth.

  The other side of the first door led to a massive room filled with cots and tools and a small hearth along the wall. I scanned it, unable to shake its resemblance to a hospital, when movement drew my attention.

  It was a flicker of color, a swirling that reminded me of Sliding.

  Dropping into a roll, I grabbed for a handful of darts and held them ready but didn’t see any recurrence of the shimmery light that I associated with Sliding.