Mage Assassin

by Logan Jacobs

  The two of us tiptoed along the farthest wall to avoid the potions on the floor, and as soon as we reached Ephy, the siren put her hand in mine. Then we all ran through the stone corridor and out into the charred grounds, and smoke and swirling mist lingered all over the forest here. It was nearing nightfall, and the forest was quiet while the stench of the necromancer’s dealings permeated the air, and Ephy wrinkled her nose.

  “Your job is so messy,” she told me.

  “Hey, it’s usually clean and quick,” I laughed. “Then you two showed up.”

  “Oh, sure!” Cinis said with a playful scowl. “Blame us instead of the necromancer and the dragonkin.”

  I smirked and tugged her skirt to bring her closer, and then I left a long, passionate kiss on her fiery lips.

  “Speaking of which,” I said as I turned to Ephy. “I’ve never met a woman who slayed a dragonkin before.”

  The siren’s big blue eyes widened, and her light-green hands shot up to her cheeks.

  “Oh, my!” she gasped. “I… I slayed a dragonkin!”

  “Yes, you did,” Cinis laughed. “You are as fearsome as you are beautiful.”

  “Why… thank you, Cinis.” The siren blushed and then bowed her head to the other woman.

  I chuckled as I pulled the siren into my arms as well, and when I kissed her, her silvery giggle slipped into my mouth.

  Then I heard a thundering crack behind me, and we all flipped around to see the dragonkin’s home caving in.

  “Go!” I snickered.

  The three of us scaled the crumbling wall before we kept on running, and Ephy and Cinis let out ecstatic laughs as they dashed ahead of me toward the dusky path.

  I grinned at the sight of the two beautiful women beneath the trees, and a heady dose of adrenaline pulsed through my whole body as I sprinted after them.

  I’d finally avenged my master and put an end to the dragonkin of the northwest quarters, and it was probably the most exhilarating mission I’d ever accomplished.

  But as I laughed and caught up with the beauties ahead of me, I knew none of this would have been half as fun without the two of them fighting by my side.

  Chapter 21

  Ephy and Cinis trotted through the streets of the northwest quarters with their hands clasped together, and I was right behind them while they chatted non-stop about the death of the titan, the dragonkin, and the necromancer. At least, that’s what they mostly talked about. Every now and then, they would turn back to me with large smiles and glinting eyes, and they’d say that dreadful word “hero.”

  I’d grinned and rolled my eyes most times.

  “We should see how the city’s recovered,” I said to the two women. “I’m wondering how much has gotten cleaned up.”

  “Isn’t that ages away?” Cinis turned and asked.

  “We can always take a water salamander,” Ephy reminded her.

  “What about your powers?” I said as I gently nudged her arm. “Do you need to go to the pond and recharge.”

  “I guess all that energy from that fight has kept me going.” The siren smiled. “I feel lovely! Let us go through the city.”

  “Well…” I paused and looked down at her lily pad skirt, and the sight of her periwinkle hair just barely covering her nipples kept me silent for several seconds. “Should you be… more covered?”

  “Why?” Ephy tilted her pastel head to the side.

  “No reason,” Cinis snickered. “You’re perfect just how you are.”

  The two beauties parted so I could walk in the middle of them, and I smiled with pleasant surprise as they both linked their arms with mine.

  I couldn’t recall ever escorting such goddesses through Ocadia in my life.

  The kingdom was getting darker as night fell, but I welcomed this type of purplish darkness because it meant that the long day was almost over, and everything was nearly put to rest.

  We promptly made our way to the nearest stream and started to wander down it until we came across the amphibian that could take us away.

  “I’ve never been on one of these,” Cinis said and gawked at the watery creature that laid on the bank. “We sometimes ride fire salamanders in the Ardere, but you have to tame them first, and it’s almost never worth the trouble.”

  “Well, water salamanders are tamer, but very fast, so as long as you hold on tight, you’ll be okay,” I told her.

  I took the lead and got onto the upper part of the water salamander’s back. Ephy eagerly nestled herself right ahead of me with a giggle, and Cinis slid behind my back so I ended up comfortably wedged between them.

  “Ready?” Ephy purred over her shoulder, and I swallowed hard as the siren shifted even closer against my groin.

  “Yes, I’m ready,” I chuckled, and I held on to the satiny siren with one hand, and the heated thigh of the winged-descendant with the other.

  Then Ephy tugged the salamander, and it toppled into the water and sped off. The damp evening air blasted over us, and the invigorating sensation made me grin almost as much as the little shriek Cinis let out.

  We arrived next to the town centre only ten minutes later, and we jumped off the salamander’s back and onto the bank to get our bearings.

  “That wasn’t so bad, was it?” I laughed and nudged Cinis, who was laying her long braid flat again.

  “Definitely an experience,” she humored me. “My boots are drenched.”

  “I don’t wear boots,” Ephy said with a shrug, and she twiddled her little green toes against the mud.

  The three of us started to walk up the banks and to the footpaths near the stream, and then we headed into the nearest avenue. The closer we got to the town centre, the more we could see everything being rebuilt. The townspeople had come out in full force and started to fix the crumble buildings, and most of the debris that Ignis had thrown around had already been cleared away from the main areas. Carts with horses were being used as transport for all of the mess that was no longer needed, and it was a pleasurable sight to see the whole kingdom working together. It didn’t happen often, but watching the elves, the sylphs, the goblins, and even the harpies working in unison made me proud to live in Ocadia.

  We continued down the avenue for a ways before I noticed Eroven, and he had already piled new and exotic fruits throughout his stall to get ready for tomorrow’s market.

  I sent the balding wizard a friendly wave in passing, and Eroven smiled for a moment before he abruptly gaped at the sight of me. Eroven’s aged eyes dashed between Cinis and Ephy like he’d never seen me with a woman around in his life.

  Which was true.

  I offered the old wizard an amused shrug and bowed my head on my way down the street, and I saw the shadow of a hazy smile on his sun-spotted face just before the three of us turned the next corner.

  “I have to try that screwbler and get back to him about it,” I thought aloud.

  “What is a screwbler?” Ephy asked with wide, eager eyes.

  “A tampered fruit a wizard gave me,” I replied. “I’ve nearly forgotten all about it after the last couple of days, but I’ve been curious to try it out.”

  “Mmm… tampered fruits sound fun,” Cinis murmured, and I chuckled at her mischievous smile. Then Cinis glanced passed me, and her eyes narrowed. “Look over there.”

  I glanced in the direction she pointed and saw some uniformed men. They all carted a shield in one hand and a weapon with the other, but they didn’t seem to be causing mischief, instead they seemed to be looking for someone.

  “Who are they?” Ephy startled. “They look scary.”

  I recognized these particular uniforms from earlier. I had seen them when I was disguised as the druid and went to sit in on the king’s assembly.

  “Those are the king’s guards,” I informed the both of them, and I started to head in their direction.

  Over a dozen armored men were scattered out in front of us, but as soon as I neared the end of the pathway, where the horizontal path joined with the vertical,
I noticed that there were much more than this around.

  Nearly fifty knights were milling around the town centre and talking to creatures, while others appeared to be standing guard and keeping a close watch on everyone passing by.

  “Where are we going?” Cinis whispered from my side.

  “To find out what they’re up to,” I replied.

  Just before I reached the nearest group of guards, I halted and casually shifted my attention to the stall next to me. Of course, I didn’t want anything from there, but it was a way of being able to listen to what the guards were talking about without actually getting involved myself. Cinis and Ephy took my lead, and we all started to collect some of the broken pieces of wood as if to help with the cleanup.

  “It was the sorcerers,” I heard a young boy exclaim to two guards. “I saw it happen. I don’t know who it was from our house that finished Ignis off for good, but it was definitely someone from our estate that killed him.”

  “Hmm,” the guard growled. “Any evidence to support that? We’ve had people from all over the place telling us it was their own estate. We’re not fools, boy.”

  “But I saw it!” the boy stubbornly insisted. “Trust me. The sorcerers saved us all!”

  I glanced sidelong and saw the guard shake his head as he jotted something down on a slip of parchment.

  “Right,” he noted. “Thanks, off you go, then.”

  I grinned and realized the king had sent out his entire collection of guards to try and find out who had killed the titan, and I could only imagine the headache he’d found himself in today. Every estate in the kingdom would be insisting the victory was theirs, and I chuckled quietly to myself as a group of cocky young elementalists started telling the knights the tale of how their Archmage slayed Ignis.

  I whistled to get the women’s attention, and then I nodded my head in the direction of my estate. They quickly followed me back onto the path, and we didn’t speak until after we passed all the guards in the town centre.

  “Are you gonna tell them?” Cinis finally broke the silence.

  “No,” I tutted. “What’s the point in that?”

  “Ohhh, I don’t know,” Cinis hummed. “Probably a lot. There’s certainly the opportunity to show off and be as condescending as you please from here on out.”

  “Plus, glory, recognition, the gratitude of millions…” Ephy tapped these points off on her green fingers.

  “No, that’s definitely not my style,” I said and sent the women a roguish grin.

  Ephy let out a silvery giggle, and her deep-blue eyes glittered up at me.

  Cinis’ red-amber eyes glinted in a way that immediately caught my attention, though, and her hold on my arm heated up a bit more. Her ample, leather-clad breast pressed against me suggestively, but the two of us calmly continued toward the west without a word.

  We walked for about fifteen minutes, and the three of us didn’t even need to fill the silence. It was as if we’d been strolling arm in arm like this forever, and I left a contented smile on my face as I led the exotic beauties through Ocadia. We took in the scenery, watched the people rebuild the quarters, and enjoyed the fresh evening air that had finally returned to the kingdom.

  But then Ephy started to lose her speed, and she fell behind us and looked drained. I quickly turned to check on her, and her skin was an even paler green than it was before. That ethereal glow she carried with her had dimmed, and she looked dull and without the energy she used to carry.

  “Ephy?” I asked and ran over to her. “Are you okay?”

  The siren started to sway on her feet, and I caught her by the arm and threw it around my neck.

  “I need to go back to the pond,” she lulled in a weary voice. “I… I don’t feel very good, Dex Morgan.”

  She looked like she was in agony as her periwinkle eyebrows crinkled, and my heart ached to see the sweet siren so sad.

  “We’ll get you to the water,” I said at once and turned to Cinis. “The stream curls around near here, I think that’s the closest spot.”

  I scooped the siren up in my arms as Cinis hurried to lead the way, and I hollered directions to her as she made sure we didn’t trample any citizens in our hurry.

  “I don’t want Ephy to leave,” the Ember Priestess said and frowned over her shoulder. “We’ve had so much fun together, and I’ve never had such a lovely friend before.”

  “I don’t want to leave you both,” Ephy whimpered. “But I have to. I can never stay.”

  “There must be a way you could stay with us some time,” Cinis argued, and I noticed her wings beginning to glow. “Please? We can all… I don’t know, slay Dex’s targets together! It’ll be fun! I’m tied to the ember fields, but I can be away from them for however long I want, I’m sure you could do the same.”

  The siren shook her periwinkle head, and her sad eyes found mine. “The water gods are my masters, and I can’t stay away from them for long.”

  “So, there’s no way?” I asked as my stomach dropped.

  “I’ve heard of sirens who have found a way to leave,” the siren murmured. “But I don’t know how they did it. Besides, it’s my home, and I’ve never known anywhere else. It sounds so scary to live in a big city with so many beings in it.”

  I walked down the banks of the stream, and I carefully laid the beautiful siren near the water’s edge.

  “I’ll come visit you,” I promised her. “And soon. If that’s alright?”

  Ephy turned to me with huge teardrop-shaped eyes and smiled.

  “Swear you will, Dex,” she whispered. “Because I’ll wait every day for you to come see me.”

  “I swear.” I smiled and grasped her hands.

  Then I kissed each of them before I kissed her forehead, and she swooned for a moment before she quickly pushed herself off the bank and into the stream. The beautiful siren dove beneath the surface without another word, and as the rings around her dispersed, I realized how much I already missed the silly and sweet woman.

  Cinis held on to my shoulder and then kissed my neck.

  “I’ll really miss her,” the Ember Priestess whispered. “I don’t get why the water goddesses have to keep her all for themselves, it’s not fair. She’s so lovely.”

  “I know,” I agreed. “I’ll miss her, too.”

  “Maybe we can do something to free her!” Cinis exclaimed. “After all, you have just killed a fire titan. It can’t be that big a deal for you to ask the water goddesses for a favor.”

  I couldn’t help laughing at the statement, but I loved Cinis’ bold ideas, and after the day I’d had, nothing seemed impossible.

  Not after venturing through Hud twice and living to tell the tale.

  “I certainly don’t want to piss off anyone else right now,” I chuckled. “But it is an intriguing idea… If that’s what Ephy would want, I suppose I would do it.”

  “Even though it’s soooo dangerous for us to get mixed up with an assassin?” Cinis chided.

  I rolled my eyes and dragged the priestess into my arms, and then I admired the warmth burning in her eyes.

  “It is dangerous,” I replied, “but I’m having trouble caring at the moment. Especially after seeing the pair of you hold your own against the necromancer and her scaly husband. I have a feeling I don’t have to worry about either of you as much as I thought, particularly you.”

  “I am rather fiery,” Cinis murmured, and her red-amber eyes gleamed seductively. “And I am used to getting what I want, Dex.”

  “Why don’t you and I head back to my estate?” I said and slipped a stray strand of black hair behind her ear. “That’s all I’d like to focus on right now.”

  “Maybe I could visit Ephy again one day, too,” she said as we both turned to head back to the avenue.

  “I think she’d like that,” I agreed.

  Cinis wrapped her arm around mine, and we continued on in a comfortable silence as we crossed through the southeast quarter, walked along the overgrown path of the abandone
d coven, and finally approached the ivy-covered walls of the Assassins’ Estate.

  The large, round door was still locked, but when I knocked, I was quickly greeted by everyone eagerly awaiting my return. They all looked at me with pride as I escorted the Ember Priestess inside, and I could tell by their wide grins that they’d heard the news of Ignis’ end.

  “One arrow to the heart,” Pamphrus called from the desk. “And then the titan fell.”

  “Well done, Dex,” Mazne shouted and ran over to me. “As soon as I heard the news, I knew it was our own Master who had ended it all.”

  “Not only that,” Cinis chimed in. “But the necromancer who killed your honorable Master Abbot has also fallen at the hands of your new Master.”

  “Yes, everything’s done,” I finalized. “Justice has been served. The kingdom has been saved, and our estate has been avenged.”

  The entire group of assassins looked shell-shocked at the news, but Elis proudly announced he knew all along that I was on the job. I took a moment to fill everyone in on our discovery about the dragonkin’s wife, her connection to the spying warlock, and her attempt at raising her slain husband from the dead.

  When all was done, the room remained quiet for a long moment, and we bowed our heads in respect.

  Master Abbot had been more than just a leader to us. He was our family, and he’d given us the lives we led here. He protected us, trained us, and informed all our dealings, and now, it was up to us all to carry on delivering discreet and unparalleled justice throughout Ocadia.

  I could only hope to live up to his example for this band of trained killers from here on out.

  “Well, on behalf of everyone in the estate, I’d say it’s an honor serving you, Master Morgan,” Pamphrus announced and walked closer to me. He shoved his hand on my shoulder and gave it a tight squeeze. “There’s not a better person to take over the role.”

  The crowd of assassins around me offered hearty cheers and claps to my back, and one by one, they came up to me to shake my hand and commend me for my work.

  I found it slightly awkward in a way because I was never the type that enjoyed the limelight, but Cinis was there, and she held onto my arm through it all with her chin proudly lifted up.