Weapon of Pain (Weapon of Flesh Series Book 5)

by Chris A. Jackson

  Arbuckle found himself thinking happily on that prospect all the way back to the library.

  “I can’t believe you turned down money!” Dee shut and bolted the apartment door behind them, glad to be home. Walking into the constabulary had made him nervous; at the palace he’d felt like a cockroach on a ballroom floor.

  Mya kicked off her shoes and started stripping off her bloody clothing and tossing it in a pile on the floor. “We’re not in this for the money, Dee.”

  “Really? The guild’s not out to turn a profit?”

  “Of course it is, but consider how much more of a profit we can turn if we have the emperor’s good will! I’m thinking long-term here. You can’t buy that kind of influence.” Clad only in her wrappings, she scooped up her clothes and strode to the kitchen. “Why are you bringing this up now?”

  “We couldn’t discuss it in the carriage. Assistants don’t question the Grandmaster’s decisions. I didn’t want the driver taking stories back to Blade headquarters.” Dee doffed his jacket and draped it across the table, then fetched his case of extra bolts from a cupboard. He needed to cultivate the habit of replenishing his ammunition immediately. Living with the Grandmaster in the midst of a guild war, one never knew when the next attack might come.

  “Good point.” Mya dumped her clothes in the pot and drenched them with water to soak out the blood. “No one needs to know that you’re anything more than my dutiful assistant.”

  Dee flinched at the offhand remark. That’s right, Dee’s the ever-obedient assistant blindly following his mistress’ every order. More violently than he intended, he flung open the jacket to expose the holstered crossbows and bolts, then stopped.

  What in the Nine Hells…

  The jacket had two rows of long, thin pockets in the lining, one on each side, to safely hold and separate the anesthetic bolts from the lethal ones. The right side was full, and only four remained on the left, just the opposite of what should have been. Dee dropped into the chair as all the strength left his legs, his mind spinning.

  “Oh, no,” he whispered hoarsely. “Oh, gods.”

  Mya froze. “What’s wrong?”

  He pointed at the empty bolt slots. “I used the wrong bolts when I reloaded. I… I killed them, Mya.”

  “You…” Mya came to the table and looked at the array of tiny bolts, unmindful of the bloody water dripping from her hands onto the floor. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, I’m sure!” Dee pulled a white-capped vial from a little pocket on the right side, and a black-capped vial from the left. “White is anesthetic. Black is deadly.”

  “How many?” Was that disappointment in her voice?

  It should be. I failed her again. Dee forced himself to look up at her. “Four, at least. Mya, I’m sorry.”

  Mya sighed, and he wondered what thoughts raced through her mind… Repercussions? Cost?

  She shrugged. “Well, there’s nothing for it now. What’s done is done. They were trying to kill us, after all. I think I killed at least one.”

  “I screwed up, Mya. And it’s not the first time. I shouldn’t even have gone into that basement. I’m no good at—”

  “Forget it, Dee! They’re dead, and we’re alive. End of story. I need a bath.” Mya headed for the bathroom, unwinding her wrappings as she went.

  “But…” Dee’s mind stumbled in confusion. She was letting him off the hook…but why?

  Mya stopped at the bathroom door and looked back over her shoulder at him. “Join me?”

  Realization hit him like a hammer blow to the chest. Because I’m sleeping with her. Because sex is the only thing I’m good for…

  Suddenly, Dee knew he had to get out of the flat, get away from her before he did or said something foolish. He shot up out of the chair and strode to the bedroom. Plucking his dark clothes from the clothes press, he dumped them on the bed and pulled off his gaudy attire. As he was redressing, Mya leaned through the door.

  “You going somewhere?”

  Dee averted his gaze so she couldn’t read the lie in his eyes. “I need to touch base with the Blades and Enforcers, see if anything happened after we left the perfumery. Lakshmi’s going to know you took the kid, and she might make a move.”

  “You need to relax, Dee. I understand that today was…stressful, but it was a mistake! You can’t beat yourself up for killing someone who would have had no problem killing you. You’re too keyed up to go out now. It would be dangerous.”

  “They’re hunting you, not me.” Dee cinched his trousers and stomped his feet into his soft boots.

  Mya continued unrelenting. “It’s also unnecessary. Clemson and Noncey know their jobs. By morning they’ll have made their observations, followed up on leads, and have the details all ready for us.”

  Dee stepped past, keeping his eyes off her enticing rune-etched skin, taut muscles, and delicious curves. No! Not now. He picked up his jacket and turned toward the door. “Relaxing isn’t something I think I can do right now.”

  “Then I’ll help you relax.” Mya stepped into his way and reached for the collar of his shirt, stroking it before trailing her fingers onto his chest. “You help me relax all the time. It’s only fair that I return the favor occasionally.”

  Dee jerked back involuntarily, as if her touch burned his flesh. For the first time, he found Mya’s eagerness off-putting rather than enticing. “No, Mya. I’m sorry, but…I need to go out.”

  Mya’s face flushed as she spun on her heel. “Fine. But remember, they might be hunting me, but they saw you, too.” She stopped at the bathroom door and looked back again. “Be careful.”

  “Don’t worry. I’m a Hunter, remember.” The words tasted bitter on his tongue.

  “I know that, Dee.”

  Without another word, Dee hurried down the stairs to the street, his spirit sinking lower with every step. It felt like when Hoseph’s spell had dredged up every bad memory of his life, but worse, because he’d brought this on himself with his ineptitude. He’d become more of a liability to Mya than an asset.

  Why did I come to Tsing at all?

  Much more of his help, and Mya would end up dead.

  Following the resonance of the summoning chime, Hoseph shifted from the Sphere of Shadow into the physical world, his nerves as taut as a bow string. He had instructed Lakshmi to summon him only an emergency, so he materialized with the invocation of soul searching on his lips and his hand glowing with the pearly essence of Demia’s power. He whipped around in a quick circle, his head lurching in pain with the sudden motion, then stopped.

  “What’s going on?”

  Three master assassins looked at him with varying miens, none of them panicked or even particularly urgent. In fact, the greatest distress seemed to be Master Hunter Embree’s trepidation as he halted in mid-pace at Hoseph’s arrival. Kittal shifted uncomfortably in his chair, fingering a vial of black liquid worn around his neck on a chain, his eyes quickly averting from Hoseph’s. The Master Inquisitor reclined unperturbed upon her divan, the chime dangling from her fingertips as if she had just rung to summon tea, not a high priest of Demia.

  “What’s wrong?” Hoseph banished his invocations and blinked back the blinding pain throbbing behind his eyes. He’d been resting, so the single transition hadn’t incapacitated him, but he knew the fatigue and pain would be a long time ebbing. “I told you to use that only in dire need!”

  “No, you didn’t.” With pursed lips, she dismissed his concerns with a casual flick of her hand. “You said if the event of something important, and this is important. We’ve experienced a setback and need your assistance.”

  “What kind of setback?” Lakshmi’s calm bothered Hoseph more than the others’ apprehension. The Master Inquisitor was a mistress of dissemblance.

  “One of the Tessifus boys was taken from us.”

  “What?” A nauseating roil of rage in Hoseph’s stomach exacerbated the pain and fatigue of the transition. “Taken how? You told me they were safe! Who could have…”r />
  “Who do you think took him? Mya.” Lakshmi inspected a fingernail, still seemingly unconcerned.

  Sweet shadows of death, why am I plagued by this woman? “I thought you had a plan to kill Mya!"

  Lakshmi shrugged. “We did. It didn’t work out.”

  Hoseph fought to keep control as his pounding head goaded his temper. “How did she find out where you were keeping the boy?”

  “She’s a Master Hunter, Hoseph. Finding people is what they do!” She shot him a cold look. “We don’t know how she found him, and we don’t know where she took him, but six of my assassins were killed and three more were injured.”

  “It doesn’t matter where she took him, what matters is that she did!” Hoseph jabbed a rigid finger as if he could stab her with it. “You said you’d kill Mya. You failed. You also said the boys were safe. They weren’t. I can’t believe a master could be so—”

  “Oh, shut up!” The Master Inquisitor waved her hand as if dismissing a bothersome child.

  “How dare you!” Seething, Hoseph flicked the silver skull into his palm. All he need do was grab hold of Lakshmi as he uttered the invocation…then release her once they were in the Sphere of Shadow. But…he knew he couldn’t.

  And so did Lakshmi.

  While Kittal and Embree shrank away from the enraged priest, Lakshmi just gave him a look of bored indignation. “How dare I? You’re not even a member of the guild, yet you sow discord in our ranks by killing our guildmaster, destroying the blood contracts, murdering our Master Hunter in a fit of pique, and now ranting and raging that I have failed! Don’t think to threaten me, priest. We’ve lost nothing but a minor bargaining chip, a pawn. We still hold the one piece that truly matters.”

  “Where are the other two boys?” Hoseph demanded through clenched teeth.

  “You know I’m not going to tell you, so don’t ask again. We,” her encompassing wave included Kittal and Embree, “are the Assassins Guild, Hoseph, not you. You don’t appoint guildmasters, or even successors to masters, for that matter.”

  “I hold the guildmaster’s ring! It’s mine to bestow on the one who—”

  “It is NOT!” The Master Inquisitor shot up from the divan, her carefully cultivated poise finally dispelled. “You dangle that ring like a carrot before a recalcitrant mule, but it’s not yours to bestow! When we hand you Mya, which we will, eventually, you’ll hand over the ring, and the masters of this guild will chose Tara’s successor.”

  Hoseph glared at her, then at the other two masters. “You agreed to this?”

  “Yes,” Kittal said without hesitation, apparently emboldened by Lakshmi’s speech. “The rules of succession are quite clear. The masters choose their own guildmaster. Only in cases of irreconcilable differences does the Grandmaster appoint a guildmaster. If you were an assassin, you’d know that.”

  “And you, Embree?” Hoseph glared at the new Master Hunter. “I was the one who put that ring on your finger. Are you saying that I was wrong? That perhaps you shouldn’t be a master at all?”

  Embree’s face gleamed with sweat, but his expression remained steadfast. “The position of master was my right. A master’s ring goes to the senior journeyman of that faction. But they’re right.” He nodded to Kittal and Lakshmi. “We decide who succeeds Lady T, not you.”

  “And tell me,” Hoseph said dangerously, “who will succeed you when your soul is sent to the afterlife?”

  Embree blanched, but held his ground. “My senior journeyman, of course!”

  “Don’t threaten us, Hoseph.” Lakshmi had recovered her poise. “We’ll consult you as an advisor and utilize your unique skills and influence, but you wield no power in this guild. In fact, we summoned you to see if your contact can find out if Mya took the boy to Duke Tessifus. If she’s not working for someone, then why not just kill him and be done with it? That would be enough to disrupt our plan.”

  Hoseph seethed as he glared at the three masters. They were treating him like some kind of menial. Together, they stood unified against him, a bulwark against any threat or bribe he might use to coerce them into doing his bidding. But when each was alone…

  Abruptly, Hoseph changed tactics. “I’ll see what I can find out. See to the safety of your charges, Master Inquisitor. The future of the guild rests upon the success of our plan.”

  Lakshmi wrinkled her nose in a poisoned smile. “Goodbye, Hoseph. If you discover anything important, please drop by.”

  Without taking his hard stare from her face, Hoseph faded into mist.

  Chapter XIII

  Dee trudged down the stairs into the heart of Clemson’s hideout. Noncey’s people were still out doing their jobs, and he’d been assured that they’d have a detailed report ready in the morning. The last thing he wanted was to go back to the apartment and tell Mya that she’d been right, so he’d decided to stop at the distillery to pick up the fancy jacket that Jolee had taken for him at the perfumery.

  “Good work today, Dee!” The guard at the bottom of the stairs smiled and jerked his head in the direction of the journeymen quarters. “You might still catch them before they all pass out.”

  “Thanks.” Good work? Of course, none of them knew his mistake, his failure. Dee followed the sound of laughter and carousing. Maybe he could just grab his jacket unnoticed.

  “Dee!” Jolee stood with a grin as he peered into the room. Silence fell, and every head swiveled toward him.

  So much for being inconspicuous. “I just need to—”

  “Have a drink with us!” Jolee dragged him into the room, poured amber liquid into a cup, and handed it to him. She raised her cup to the others. “Here’s to Dee, the Grandmaster’s assistant and wily bastard extraordinaire!”

  “To Dee!” The Enforcers and Blades raised their cups and drank.

  “Wily bastard?” A hot flush crept up his neck. Were they mocking him?

  “You were the one who reconned this mission, and it went off like clockwork; no one seriously hurt or killed, on our side anyway.” She shoved him into a chair. “That’s no mean feat. I mean, I can bash a head better than anyone, but when it comes to sneaking around and intelligence gathering? I leave that to you Hunters.”

  They don’t know I screwed up… How strange it seemed to Dee, this camaraderie, the laughs and appreciative comments on his performance. He’d never known anything like it in Twailin. He’d been the butt of jokes there, the assassin who couldn’t throw a knife. There, they knew of his failures. But here… He sipped from his cup, the scalding sweetness of spiced rum burning a lump from his throat.

  “And I saw the bodies they dragged out of there,” said a Blade who had been on watch outside the perfumery. “Two of you go into the basement and come out alive with the kid, and a half dozen of them come out dead. The Grandmaster had her hands full with the boy, so I’m guessing it was you who racked up the count.”

  “Actually, I—”

  “Don’t be modest, Dee!” Jolee grinned and nudged Dee’s shoulder, nearly knocking him off his chair. “You covered the Grandmaster’s backside pretty good.”

  “Bet he covers her front pretty good, too!” another joked, earning a round of laughter. “Lucky bastard!”

  Dee choked on his rum, spilling some down his shirt. He hadn’t told anyone he and Mya were sleeping together, and she sure as hell had avoided saying anything that might have suggested intimacy between them. “Who told you that?”

  Jolee chucked him on the shoulder hard enough to bruise. “Come on, Dee! Just gotta see the way you look at her to know. She’s lucky to have someone. Can’t be easy being Grandmaster in the middle of a guild war.”

  “Can’t be easy being Grandmaster at all,” another Enforcer added.

  “Couldn’t pay me enough,” a third agreed.

  “Don’t worry. We won’t tell anyone you’re warmin’ Mya’s bed, though I’d certainly claim braggin’ rights,” another journeyman declared. “Noncey and Clemson are doin’ it like two rabbits in a hutch, but it don’t make
no difference.”

  “She took you into that basement with her, so he’s got the best of both worlds!” An Enforcer raised his glass to Dee. “A kick-ass Hunter to watch her ass in a fight, and someone she trusts in her bed.”

  “Aye, everybody needs somebody.” Jolee shrugged her massive shoulders.

  Dee tried—and failed—to imagine who Jolee’s someone might be, but wasn’t about to ask. He sipped his rum and sat back, the turmoil of his earlier disposition somehow tempered. They respected him for the job he’d done. They also knew about his relationship with Mya and actually approved. Not one had suggested that he was garnering favor by sleeping with her. Warmth suffused his body, from the alcohol or their esteem, he didn’t know or care. I’ll stay here tonight, he decided. Maybe a drunken night with friends would give him the fortitude to face Mya tomorrow.

  Friends… Dee had never had many of those.

  Jolee leaned in close, her breath redolent of rum. “We ever get in a tight spot, you can watch my back any time.”

  “Thanks, Jolee. Likewise.”

  “I’ll be happy to watch your back, or something a bit lower,” she laughed as she reached around to pinch him.

  Raucous laughter burst out all around, but everyone fell silent as an Enforcer barged into the room, out of breath and sweaty.

  “Jolee! We got a message for Master Clemson!”

  “This time of night?” Jolee looked dubious. “Who’s it from?”

  “Don’t know, but it came to Clemson’s chandlery. The foreman sent it through the rounds to make sure no one could trace it here, so it just arrived.” He pulled a message tube from under his jacket and held it out. It gleamed red in the lamplight.

  They all looked at one another. Colored message tubes had particular significance given the ongoing guild war: red meant negotiation, white signified surrender.