by Daul, Amanda
She and Cayl had left the horses farther back in the forest and had been surveying the grounds for over an hour. It certainly had changed since Arissa had last been there. It used to be a place that actually resembled happiness. The Governor and his family lived in the house, and other important figures would often go there for meetings or to get simply together. He never turned down his home to anyone who was worthy. Even the staff that worked there, the guards and the housemaids, were friendly and welcoming to Arissa. Since she had been there so often to meet with the Governor, she had become well known among nearly everyone who worked there. Some had always been wary and too cautious around her, clearly intimidated, but Arissa never paid them much attention.
“People here know who you are. You'll be recognized in a second. We can't trust them not to fire an alarm to the soldiers. Maybe I should be the one to go,” Cayl suggested.
His voice was becoming strained again, gasping for air on nearly each breath. He had taken the medicine that Yasmine had sent with them earlier, but it was obviously already beginning to wear off. He had repeatedly told Arissa that he was fine and the pain wasn't as bad as it had been, but she knew better. However, she did her best to ignore his gasps of pain. There was nothing either of them could do until they could show their faces in public again without being arrested.
“You can't go. A stranger shows up at the mansion with a bullet hole in him and people are going to get suspicious, Cayl,” Arissa informed. She could understand how he was feeling, useless with nothing that he could do except act as her guard. She would love to be able to bring him with her when she went after the General, but at the same time she knew that she couldn't, all she would feel was the immense guilt of dragging Cayl into the darkest part of her life. He would be executed on the spot if anyone knew that she had told him all the General's secrets. Arissa couldn't live with that.
“I'm not going to sit here and do nothing, Arissa. I sympathize for what you've been through, but a lot has happened to me, too, and now it's my fight just as much as it is yours,” Cayl shot back.
“This is not your fight, Cayl!”
“It became my fight the second that you traded my freedom for your life's dedication! You really think that I'm just going to let that go by unnoticed?”
Arissa felt her cheeks heating with frustration quickly. The last thing she needed to be doing was having this argument with Cayl.
“If you know me at all, you’ll know that I have never let another person fight my battle for me and I don't ever intend to start. I am not going to be responsible for your death because of the things I've done in my past. This is between me and the General.” Arissa attempted to turn back to study the mansion, but Cayl caught her shoulder quickly, forcing her to look back at him.
“It may have started that way, but it's grown into so much more than that. It doesn't just affect you anymore. It affects everybody we know. Our cities...Arissa, think of our family. We aren't just fighting for your freedom anymore. It's for everybody who has ever been wronged. If what we think is true, then we could change the world, help turn it back into the beautiful place that it used to be. But, Arissa, you cannot do it alone.”
His words seemed to settle in her heart. She hadn't realized it, but since she had enlightened Cayl with her past, she had been subconsciously feeling that it was now up to her to fix everything. It made sense now that the reason behind her thinking was that if she could do something good for the world now, perhaps it would make up for all the wrong things she had done.
“I need to fix this. All my life I have been nothing good, only a drain on society. I don't want to be that anymore, but I am. I can't be a good person while I still feel the need to kill the ones who are forcing people to live this way. I tried but I've accepted that I'm not a good person. I try to be for you, but I still don't feel like it's enough. The only way I can ever feel good about anything is if I can take down the General, because that's what this world needs now more than anything. I'm sorry, Cayl.”
She didn't speak to him again. He told her immediately that she was wrong, repeating her name several times in an attempt to talk some self-confidence into her, but it didn't work. She couldn't force herself to hurt the man that she loved again.
There had been no movement or signs of activity around the mansion since their heated conversation had begun. Arissa decided it was time to move. She had taken one of the knives from the bag of Landon's, securing it in the usual place in her boot, and began eyeing up the nearest open window, more than twenty feet away from where they hid.
Before moving toward the mansion, Arissa turned to meet Cayl's discouraged expression, stating bluntly, “I'm going in right now, but you are staying here. I can take care of myself, but I can't guarantee what's going to happen in there. All I need to do is find something that incriminates the Lieutenant for the Governor's murder and I'll be out as quickly as I can. I don't need help. What I need is for you to stay safe. Please, Cayl. Just trust me on this. I know what I'm doing this time.”
She didn't wait for a reply, she just turned away as she began to pull the heavy hood of her cloak over her head. The second she began to leave, though, she was nearly startled when Cayl reached out to grab her elbow and jerk her back to where he stood. At first she didn't understand, but when Cayl's lips crushed against her own in a passionate embrace, all other thoughts vanished from her mind. His strong hands gripped the sides of her face, pushing her hair out of her eyes and Arissa could feel his breath on her skin.
For a moment after they broke contact, she couldn't exactly process where she was. Feeling winded, she glanced up at the handsome man she hadn't been able to stop thinking about since that terrible night he had been kidnapped. His kiss only reminded her of what she had to lose.
His voice was low and husky as he pleaded, “Please be careful. Don't let anything happen to you. I'll be waiting.”
Even when he told Arissa he loved her, she couldn't force herself to return the gesture or even acknowledge it. Saying anything would make it feel final, as if she wouldn't see him again.
“Keep your gun loaded,” was the only thing that she could possibly think of to say before she disappeared.
Arissa wasn't worried about getting into the mansion. In less than a minute, she had darted across the clearing to hide against the wall of the house and slipped in through a window. The room she was in was vacant, appearing to be some sort of lounge area, with its plush carpeting and styled wall hangings that matched the smooth fabric of the furniture. Everything was elegant without being extravagant, exactly the way she always remembered the Governor being.
Her heart thundering painfully in her chest, Arissa took a moment to quickly recall everything she could about the manor. There were three storeys, the Governor's office in which she had found his lifeless body was on the second floor in the west wing. She was in the east. Crossing nearly the entire ground floor without being seen would be close to impossible. The last thing she wanted to do was kill anyone in the mansion, even Arissa felt like that would be disrespectful to the reverence she had for the Governor himself.
Maybe she didn't have to go completely unseen. She only needed a minute to re-examine the office and search for what she imagined would be all the evidence she needed. As long as she wasn't captured, it didn't matter if she was seen or not because she could escape the mansion a hundred different ways at a moment's notice, she knew it well enough. The important thing would be for her not to be recognized.
Hastily, Arissa reached to the inside layer of her cloak, near a seam and tore a great length away from where it had already been torn. She ripped a few holes into the edge of the fabric and quickly tied it around her head, forming a black, obstructing mass. With the hood of her cloak pulled down, she could still see well enough around her, but her face was completely unrecognizable as she studied it briefly in a hanging mirror on the lounge wall.
Listening carefully for any signs of movement, Arissa quickly thought back to the last
hour when they had been surveying the grounds. Her mind still felt slightly hazy from Cayl's explosive kiss, but she forced herself to clear her mind of its intoxication. She had to be focused.
Only remembering seeing two different guards on the grounds, Arissa quickly recalled her previous trips to the mansion and knew she had to find the grand staircase as quickly as possible. There had been a second, smaller staircase that was more hidden and concealed toward the back of the mansion, but it was frequently trafficked by the maids and footmen, as not to be seen in the general public of the house.
By the vacant look that the house seemed to hold, Arissa guessed that the only people there at the moment would be the workers. Besides, the grand staircase was the quickest way to the office.
The soft soles of her boots made little noise against the polished hardwood. As she stepped out of the room she had been hiding in. Her cloak billowed out around her in a dark cloud as she swiftly ran from hall to hall, pausing to check around each corner and door before advancing.
With each empty room, Arissa's paranoia was continuously rising. It seemed awfully suspicious that the Governor's mansion would be sitting empty. His family still lived there as far as she knew, and there had to be maids still working. Everything in the house was in impeccable order and it didn't stay that way by itself. Besides, she had seen the guards. She had to just be hitting a lucky time.
Still, she was extra wary while she slipped through the mansion, finding herself feeling more and more desperate to see that glistening, marble staircase.
Finally, she was able to see it through a window in the last door that separated her from the staircase. Arissa was about to crack open the smooth door when the handle that she had not yet grasped, turned.
Her heart leapt into her throat and she jumped away to avoid being hit. Hoping that the door would not bump into her, she pressed herself against the wall as tightly as she could, behind the open door. Swiftly snatching up the billowing lengths of her cloak, she could literally feel herself stop breathing as she waited for the person to appear.
It was a guard. He had his rifle hiked up over his shoulder. He seemed nonchalant as he walked casually through the door, simply letting the door swing slowly shut behind him.
He didn’t turn to notice her at all, when she slipped out from her hiding position and passed through the door before it could close itself.
The rest of the journey was simple. She encountered nobody else while she darted through the foyer and up the exquisite staircase. Even when she entered the long hallway with the red and black carpeting, she saw no sign of anybody else.
The office was exactly the way she remembered it. For a moment she had to simply stand and take in the room. Being here again seemed to teleport her back to all the times she had come to see the Governor. He always had a tray of tea and other foods present while they conversed. It truly was the only happy time during all of her work. And that was all gone now.
Arissa stepped into the centre of the room, standing in precisely the same place she had when she had discovered the Governor dead. It brought back too many sad memories to her.
She heard it before her brain caught up to her to tell her to move. Directly behind her, the distinct click of a pistol’s hammer being snapped down, ready to fire, could be heard. Arissa’s eyes flashed up, a cold shiver running through her spine.
“I knew you would come back. The criminal always returns to the scene of their crime.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
"Who are you? How did you know I was here?” Arissa called out, her voice remaining smooth and quiet. She hadn't moved yet.
“It doesn't matter, I'm nobody. But I know who you are. You're that little orphan. The one the General saved by giving you a job you didn't deserve.”
“You think hunting criminals and killing people is a worthy job?”
The voice behind her was completely unfamiliar to Arissa, but the man seemed to know her basic story. Her mind was whirling, rushing to fit together another piece of the puzzle in her mind. He chuckled, a haunting sound that filled the room.
“I aspire to killing for the General. There is no greater cause than to be in his ranks.”
Okay, so he's obviously brainwashed, Arissa thought silently to herself. That eliminates the general population. This man is definitely military, if not government, or at least he’s associated with someone who is.
“Turn around,” he ordered in a sly, disturbing tone that sent the chill straight into her bones.
Swallowing hard and ignoring the urge to shiver, Arissa grasped handfuls of her full, billowing cloak, sweeping it around her as she swiftly turned to face the man. She felt a sudden déjà vu of when she had encountered the Captain in the mountains only days ago.
She found herself staring down the barrel of a gun barrel, held by a man that she immediately hated. Obviously, this was the man who had set her up, possibly even killed the Governor. Arissa had wanted so badly to recognize him, but she didn't. Of course, that didn't mean that he wasn't an official.
Arissa needed to keep him talking, possibly make him spill a piece of information, unknowingly. “If you think so highly of the General, I'm surprised you didn't bring him with you. Showing him how you captured the most wanted villain in the territory would up your status with him considerably.”
There was something about his laugh that made Arissa just want to cringe. “You have no idea what's going on, so don't try to figure it out in that pretty head of yours. The idea...a common thief mingling with the likes of Captain Lovett and the General himself, and a woman no less! Even the Governor, that worthless wimp, forced to cohort with you. The only reason you're here is because you owed the General a debt larger than anyone else. Great men as they shouldn't have to be subject to such ghastly things.”
What debt...she found herself thinking, stricken with confusion. She didn't allow for it to show on her face. In fact, she never broke eye contact.
He went on. “I'm not interested in the fame that will come from being the one to hand you over. My goal is so much more than that, worth so much more than what you are. You can hide behind the General's power, even that revolting disguise you wear now, attempting to block your identity. It won't work on me. Or the Lieutenant, for that matter.”
Suddenly intrigued and aware, Arissa's eyes snapped back into focus, glaring into the dark, wicked eyes of this man. Only now was she seeing him clearly.
His skin was dark and roughened, marred with years of battle wounds and the effects of natural elements. His eyes were devious, nearly black and his wild, untamed hair hung to his shoulders. The clothes were less than military grade, dirty and torn, a mismatched assortment of apparel. In an instant, she was convinced that this man was definitely not military.
But he had mentioned the Lieutenant. She was right. He had been the one behind the Governor's murder. Perhaps this was the hit man he had hired. But then why was he here waiting for her? How did he know she would be there? Arissa tried to act as casual and disinterested as possible.
She mentioned, nonchalantly, “You know the Lieutenant?”
“Wouldn't you just love to know?” he smirked, his eyes darting frantically, as they had from the moment she first saw him.
“You know, actually, I would! You're going to kill me anyway, so why not tell me? It's not like I'm going anywhere now. If I try to escape, you'll just shoot me, so what's the point?”
He began to pace, circling her like a vulture targeting its prey. His steps were heavy on the smooth floor, echoing.
“I find it amusing that you're so convinced that I'm going to kill you. Oh, it would be fun, I'll admit, but that's not what I'm here for.”
His rough hand reached out and touched her cheek, sending a wave of literal disgust through Arissa's stomach. The coarse skin of his hand swept across the length of her jaw, barely skimming her loose hair.
“What are you here for? To kill the rest of the Governor's family?”
He had made a f
ull circle by now and he was once again in her line of vision, only much closer. Now she could see closer details in his abused face. There was a wide, twisted scar across his forehead, knotting his eyebrows into a gnarly pattern. His face was pitted from years of sun and probably alcohol abuse. He definitely seemed like the type Arissa had seen so many times around the pubs and taverns.
“I'm here for you, but not for the reason you think. I want to kill you, but I won't...yet. No, I believe in playing fair. That's why I'm here to give you a warning.”
Arissa scoffed, immediately. “A warning? You're joking right? What, waving a gun around in my face isn't enough?”
His eyes grew darker, wilder and more intense. He lowered the gun so that the end of the barrel rested against the hollow of her throat, pressing hard enough to make her gulp for air.
“I can't be the one to kill you. Not if I'm to become worthy to the General. I have to follow his orders. And his orders are to get you to him so he can do it himself. The world...his world, will but a much better place without you in it. Filthy little street rat,” he spat, bitterly, shoving the barrel against her suddenly.
Arissa nearly fell off balance, choking on the restriction she still felt in her throat, even after the gun was gone. She coughed and tried to gasp for air while keeping on her feet.
“You're even more stupid than I thought. There's no way the General is going to manipulate me like that, he knows it won't work on a whim. He's too desperate.”
“That's right. However...” the man agreed. He turned his back on her; taking a few, slow steps away. This would have been a terrible move if Arissa wasn't dependent on what he had to say for information. Plus, the light-headedness that had descended into her mind was making it hard to see clearly.
Instead, he brought his gun closer to his face, as if examining it carefully. He slid his hand gently along the barrel, polishing the already glowing weapon. “Desperate times call for desperate measures.”