Tanned Hide

by R. A. Meenan

and entered the church.

  A tall black man in a suit waited in the foyer. He glanced over me with a frown. “Name, sir?”

  Oh, shit. They were taking names? Good thing I went with the blues. No being anonymous here. “Ah, Neil Black. I came at the personal invitation of Ms. Fawn’s sisters.”

  “Yes, sir,” the man said. “Please find a seat.”

  As if my nerves would let me sit still on a pew. “Thank you.” I entered the cavernous church and glanced around. A lot of seats were taken already, with their occupants making quiet conversation. I watched them a moment, looking around the room, when I spied an open door leading to a prayer alcove.

  That’s what I needed. Prayer. I crossed the room to the alcove and entered it.

  A statue of Mona, the mother of Draso’s son, Kai, stood at the end of the room. Traditionally, Mona was a bighorn sheep, as she was portrayed now. Small horns, delicate face with short snout, and tiny, compared to most zyfaunos. She wore a dramatic outfit, made of long, flowy fabrics of white and gold, and was lying at the foot of a cross, looking up to the top with this odd mix of fear, sadness, and reverence. The skylight above her head bathed the whole statuary in colored light. Very heavenly, if one believed in that sort of thing.

  At least everything was peaceful. Soft light, the smell of burning candle wax and incense, the quiet sounds of conversation and monk plainsong behind me. One last moment of peace. Maybe I could calm my nerves.

  I sat down in the second pew from the front, pulled the kneeler down, and positioned myself in what I hoped was a worshipful pose. Draso, if you’re really real, if you really hear me, please, please, protect my family. Protect me. I paused, thinking about how Mom prayed. But your will be done. Amen.

  The door behind me shut.

  It took all my willpower to freeze my joints in place and keep myself from turning around.

  The unmistakable click-clack of deer hooves on stone echoed in the room. My ears twitched. Two sets from the left. One from the right. I slid further into the pew and dropped my hands, fumbling for the saber, eyes still shut against the threat I knew approached me.

  If this was how I went, here and now, I’d fight. Maybe I’d take one or two of them down before I go down myself. I gripped the saber’s hilt.

  The one on the right entered my pew. I counted one heartbeat, then stood facing her, whipping my saber from the scabbard.

  But I never stood a chance. Before I ever got the sword out far enough to do damage, the doe in front of me grabbed my hand with both of hers and ripped the weapon from me, tossing it aside with a clang. The two behind me gripped my arms and held me tight. I opened my mouth to scream, but the doe in front covered my snout, pressing an almost seductive finger to her black lips with a tiny smile.

  “Quiet, Mr. Black,” the doe said. “Wouldn’t want to invite unfriendly guests here, would you?”

  Panic gripped me. I tugged, pulled, tried to bite her hand, claw someone, anything that might get me free or at least tell my brain that I was trying to escape and I needed more adrenaline.

  “Calm yourself, Mr. Black,” one of the does behind me said. She snuck her face by my left shoulder and I saw a calm ice blue eye staring at me. “We’re not here to hurt you.”

  The words should have been comforting, but they felt like a punch to the gut. I stopped squirming and forced myself to be still.

  The doe in front loosened her grip on my snout. “There, there. See? It’s fine.”

  I took in the sight before me. The doe wore a floor length, slim black dress, sleeveless, with a choker of expensive pearls around her neck. Each ear had five pearl studs lining it. She was pale gold, much like the Matron, but with pale blue eyes and a much darker nose. I could almost call her beautiful if she wasn’t so damn dangerous.

  “What do you want with me if you don’t want to kill me?” I snarled, baring my teeth.

  “We only wanted to thank you,” the doe said.

  I frowned, unable to comprehend. Trecheon’s optimistic thought about thanking me floated through my head. “Thank me?”

  “Certainly,” the doe on my right breathed into my ear with a disturbing sensuality. “You took all the information and bait just perfectly. We never would have been able to take down the Matron without your help.”

  Electricity burst from my chest and shocked all my muscles at once. Bait? “Wait, you planted all that information?”

  “Once we saw your initial interest, yes,” the doe in front said. “It wasn’t difficult.”

  “Researching other assassins--”

  “Paying the right people to spread information--”

  “Setting up the business deal with the Matron--”

  “Completing the deal in the right building--”

  “Recommendations about your business to the right apartment complexes--”

  “And, of course, making sure you had the right partner. . .”

  I cursed internally. They knew about Trecheon. “How did you do all that without getting caught by your own Matron?”

  “We’ve been doing this a long time, Mr. Black,” the doe on the right said. “We are very, very good at our jobs.”

  “But. . . but why?”

  “For the same reason you told the White Assassin,” the doe on the left said. “We want out. We want to settle. We want to stop this pointless game of cat and mouse. If you’ll pardon the expression, sir puma.” She pressed her cold nose on the inside of my ear, stunning me. I tried to pull away, but her grip was too strong.

  “With the Matron out of the way, dissolving the Family will be easy,” the doe in front said. “Then we can settle and use this corporation for something useful. Just as you wanted. Aren’t you proud? You got that famed magic hit.”

  Not if I didn’t survive this. “If you wanted that, you could have just hired me rather than played around.”

  “And leave a trail?” the doe on the right said. “We may be an extension of the Matron’s own limbs and highly respected in the Family, but even we have our limits. If word got out that we ordered her death, we’d be instant targets. Much simpler this way.”

  “And you aren’t going to kill me.”

  “Certainly not!” the doe in front said. “In fact, we’d like to pay you. Discreetly of course.” She reached into the clutch purse sitting on the pew next to her and pulled out a tiny envelope. She walked up to me, pulled back the front of my jacket and pressed the envelope into my inner pocket, running a finger across my chest. “A good assassin deserves good pay, yes? And you were a good assassin.”

  I didn’t allow myself to relax. “From one assassin to another?”

  She touched noses with me. “Now you understand.”

  I pulled my face away. “So that’s it then? An elaborate set up, pay off, and I just go free?”

  “Go free?” the doe said, with a false shocked look. “Now who said anything about that?”

  Fresh panic ran through my spine.

  “You will be fine,” the doe on the right said. “That’s how we operate.”

  The doe to the left breathed in my ear. “But your family may not fare so well.”

  I flattened my ears and pulled on the does’ grip. Mom, Dad, Philip! “No. No, not my family. Please. Kill me instead!”

  “Oh, sweetie, that’s not how it works with The Triple Danger,” the doe in front said, running a hand under my chin. “We take from you what you took from us.”

  “Thus,” the doe on the left said. “You take our family. We take your family.”

  “No!” I tugged hard, marveling at how strong a pair of doe could be. “No, please, I’m begging you! You can’t do this!”

  “Oh, but we can,” the doe on the left said. “And we will. Sorry, sweetheart.”

  I opened my mouth to yell, shout, scream, whatever, but a hand pressed a wet rag to my face. Everything went blurry.

  “Take a little nap. You could use it,” one doe said, though her voice was faint in my ringin
g ears. “But hurry fast if you hope to save them.”

  Before I could say anything, the world went numb and faded away completely.

  Six

  By the time I woke up, it was already dark. Mona’s statue blurred into focus, a haunting image against the moonlit stained glass. My limbs were stiff and sore, probably from the fall. The grogginess stayed, but I forced myself to focus.

  Wake up, brain. Focus. Be alert. Your family depends on it.

  But my family was probably already dead.

  I pushed myself up and shook my head, stumbling to my feet. Some distant part of myself reminded me to check my inner pocket. I didn’t know what was in that envelope, but it could be a bomb or a tracking device just as much as a payoff.

  The envelope contained only cash. A level ten payment, in big bills, the highest level I have ever taken.

  But it wasn’t important. Wasn’t worth it. I forced my body to move, snatched up my saber, and stumbled out of the prayer room. I dropped the cash in the offering box on my way out of the cathedral.

  Mom. Dad. Philip. I needed to get to them. Now.

  As I floundered out, I briefly considered calling Trecheon and warning him. I reached into my pockets, and was only half surprised to find them completely empty.

  Damn, they took my phone. There was no helping it. I had to save them myself.

  A lone motorbike stood in the back of the lot, a sports bike of some kind. I swaggered over to it, practically drunk with fear, and didn’t even question why the key was still in it. I straddled the bike and turned the key, then raced as fast as my mind would let me.

  Nothing would be fast enough. Nothing would get