The Assassin's Blade

by H J Peterson

“And this I say in the name of Almighty God and with the blessings of heaven.”

  Once the vows were said, the maid of honor handed Katalin the ring box, which she’d been holding in her hand the whole time.

  Katalin opened the box and pulled out the ring. The von Thurzós, unlike Eltz, had actually taken the “simplicity is bliss” rule seriously. Well, sort of, anyway. It was a plain band, that, to his surprise, was also made of platinum. It also had a band of gold inlay, but unlike Katalin’s, it was in the middle. It seemed that Eltz and von Thurzó had managed to coordinate with one another to get them matching wedding bands.

  How did von Thurzó afford this thing? Friedrich thought as Katalin slipped the ring onto his finger, right over his engagement ring.

  Once Friedrich had the band on his finger, he and Katalin held hands, and the priest pulled out a simple, silk scarf, embroidered with flowers and vines on the ends.

  The priest gently wrapped their hands together, smiling. “In the name of Almighty God, in the light of heaven, and with the blessings of St. Janika, I bind you, Friedrich Eltz, son of Dieter Eltz and Viktoria Totefels, to your word, and I bind you, Katalin von Thurzó, daughter of Tamas von Thurzó and Terézia Jankovics, to yours. I bind your lives together in holy matrimony.” He finished binding their hands and put both of his hands on top of theirs. “May Almighty God and the angels watch over and protect you, and bless this marriage.”

  He looked between the two of them, smiling. “You may now kiss the bride.”

  Friedrich let out a silent sigh of relief. That was it. He was officially married.

  Oh, dear heaven: he was married!

  Without another moment’s pause, Friedrich and Katalin leaned forward and kissed each other for the first time as husband and wife.

  The congregation stood up and began to clap as the organist began to play, again. Friedrich and Katalin pulled away from each other, beaming as the priest unwrapped the scarf. It had finally happened: they were finally married, after nearly three years of trying to get Eltz on board with it.

  Now, they had the rest of their lives to be together.

  The second their hands were free, Katalin–his wife–hugged him, and he hugged her back. He began to worry a little about what the future looked like for the two of them. What would they do with their lives? Where would the two of them live? Would his parents let them stay in the guesthouse until he and Katalin could find their own place-

  He forced those thoughts out of his head. That wasn’t the time to think about all the things the two of them needed to figure out: at that moment, all he needed to do was enjoy his wife’s company and thank heaven for every second he had with her.

  “Friedrich, I think we should probably get to the carriage,” Maddox said from behind them.

  Friedrich looked over his shoulder at Maddox. “You’re probably right.” He looked back at Katalin, who was looking up at him. “Are you ready to go?”

  She nodded, and the two of them walked down the aisle together and right out the door.

  Of course, they were greeted with an onslaught of reporters and protesters, all screaming and yelling to the point that he couldn’t hear anything anybody was saying, with a line of police officers keeping them back so Friedrich and Katalin could walk past to the curb, where their carriage was waiting. Chayim was already there, holding the door open for them. He was smiling.

  Friedrich lead Katalin to the carriage, ignoring the crowds, and helping Katalin into the carriage.

  “Congratulations, sir,” Chayim said as Katalin settled into the carriage. “Shall we go to the wedding lunch, then?”

  “Yes, please,” Friedrich said as he got into the carriage. “Will you be able to get through all this traffic?”

  “It shouldn’t be too much of a problem,” Chayim said. “Don’t worry about it, sir: we’ll get through it.”

  Once Friedrich, Maddox, and the maid of honor were all in the carriage, Chayim shut the door, got onto the driver’s seat, and rolled away from the curb. They were on their way out of there-

  A loud bang echoed from outside, one that seemed to rock the carriage.

  They all jumped, and Maddox cursed. What in the world…

  Friedrich could feel the blood drain from his face as Maddox put his hand on the gun at his hip. “Y-you don’t think… something happened with those protesters, do you?”

  “I don’t know.” He knocked on the back wall of the carriage. “Chayim, what was that?”

  “I’m not sure,” Chayim called from the front. “I think it would be best for all of us to get back to the manor and find out what happened there: I’m sure someone will be reporting it by then.”

  Friedrich looked out the window, taking Katalin’s hand. He didn’t like the sound of all this.

  XLVII. ADELRIC

  Something horrible had happened.

  Seconds after the shots went off in the middle of the protestors, people started screaming in fear and horror, the tone in their voices practically from another world from those of moments before.

  All Adelric wanted to do was run and get out of there. Someone was shooting, and he wasn’t sure who it was. The police probably thought it had come from the protestors and would start shooting at them. The protestors probably thought it had come from the police and those with guns would probably start shooting at them.

  Klara didn’t shy away from it. In fact, she started running towards where the shots had come from, and he and Hiro had no choice but to follow.

  When they reached the police line, where the shots had come front, Adelric saw the very scene he’d feared: one of the protesters was on the ground, pressing his hand against the wound on his stomach to try and stop the bleeding. A woman was by his side, screaming for somebody to get a doctor. And there was the shooter, his gun still up and his eyes wide with horror. His whole body shook, but other than that, he didn’t move: he seemed to be paralyzed with fear.

  The shooter was Brooks. Hiro’s partner on the force.

  Adelric froze to his spot, his mind trying to process what he’d just seen. The police had just shot a protester, and he didn’t look like he was going to make it. There would be no sweeping this under the rug: too many people had seen what happened for anybody to try and convince anybody that the police weren’t to blame.

  The public was going to turn on the police over this, and with the way things already were, there would be no turning back. All because of the gut reaction of one man.

  Adelric looked over at Hiro. She was staring at Brooks, a look of betrayal on her face that cut into Adelric like a knife. He couldn’t imagine what she must have been thinking in that moment as she realized what this man had done; the emotions that warred on her face were too many to count.

  Brooks’ face, however, could be summed up with a single phrase: what have I done?

  It was at that point that Hiro began to do something that Adelric wasn’t expecting: she picked up some rocks from the ground and began to throw them at the cops as hard as she could.

  “You monsters!” She screamed as she threw the rocks. A few of them hit a couple cops in the stomach with deadly aim, making them double over for a few seconds. “Murderers! Every last one of you can go to hell!”

  The police, of course, didn’t exactly appreciate that very much. A couple came forward with their batons raised, ready to beat her purple, maybe even arrest her and throw her in jail.

  Or maybe, heaven forbid, kill her.

  One of the officers standing there smacked her across the face with the baton, hard enough that Adelric thought he heard a crack when it hit. Her head whipped to the side and she stumbled, but she managed to catch herself before she fell to the ground.

  “Run home to your washing, mutt bitch,” the cop spat as Hiro wiped away some of the blood that dribbled from the corner of her mouth. Had the man broken a few teeth? Adelric wouldn’t have been surprised if he had. “Utter another word to me, you’re going to get more than a little bruise and a bloody cheek;
got it?”

  Hiro gave the cop a look. The look in her eyes scared him: she had all the fury of hell in them, and some. She was going to kill that cop: she was going to skin him, chop him into little bits, and then she was going to kill him.

  It was at that point that Adelric finally forced himself to move. He went over to Hiro and wrapped his arms around her to pull her away from the line, before she could do anything she would regret.

  Of course, she didn’t react very well to that. She squirmed around in his arms, kicking and thrashing against his grip. “Let go of me, damn it!”

  Adelric didn’t let go: he just questioned what in the world had gotten into Hiro.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Adelric asked quickly as Hiro kicked away the approaching officers. They stayed back, surprisingly enough: he would’ve expected them to rush forward and beat the hell out of both of them. “You’re going to get yourself killed over this! Is that really what you want?”

  “I don’t care,” Hiro growled, looking him in the eye. “I don’t care if they arrest me: I have a bone to pick with those bastards, anyway.”

  Everything suddenly became very, very clear to Adelric. She was trying to get arrested: it was the only way she could get to Berkowitz and the others without putting a lot of suspicion on the two of them.

  It was actually pretty smart; at least, it would be, if it didn’t end up getting both of them killed in the process.

  And so, Adelric let go of her. You’ll have to get arrested along with her, you know, Adelric thought to himself.

  I know. Sadly.

  “I have a bone to pick with them, too,” Adelric said as the police came for Hiro.

  Before he could manage to come to his senses, he sucker-punched one of the cops in the face.

  He knew the second he felt his fist collide with that poor man’s face that he’d made a terrible mistake. An absolutely horrible mistake.

  Hiro seemed to think so, as well. She gave him a look, as if to ask him what in the world he’d been thinking.

  Frankly, he was wondering that very same thing-

  He didn’t see it coming. The very cop that he’d punched, as well as a bunch of his cop buddies, hadn’t taken that little hit very well, and a couple of them grabbed him as the one he’d punched kneed him in the stomach, hard.

  All the wind came rushing out of his lungs, and he doubled over, gasping for breath. Holy hell, that was a hard hit! In fact, he almost felt like he was going to vomit-

  Oh, no; ohnoohnoohno-

  As it turns out, he didn’t just think he was going to vomit. Apparently, he’d had a few too many ginger beers, because that knee to the stomach kind of… made him vomit up every scrap of food he’d eaten for breakfast, all over the very cop that made him do it.

  They all cursed as Adelric tried to spit out the rest of the vomit in his mouth. Hiro looked like she was on the verge of gagging, herself, and he didn’t blame her: it smelled absolutely awful.

  What the hell did he eat?

  “The two of you are under arrest; maybe a night in a cell will teach you some respect,” the cop said. He turned to Brooks, who was still shaking as the other cops tried to get other protesters away from him. Apparently, Hiro’s little “fit” had inspired the others. “Brooks, I think you need to go to the station with them: they’re going to skin you alive if you stay here any longer.”

  Brooks didn’t seem to hear the cop, at first. Eventually, though, he just kind of nodded slowly. “R-right. I need to get back to the station. B-Berkowitz will probably need to talk to me, anyway.”

  He’d never thought he’d be able to say this about a cop like him, but he actually felt sorry for the man. Adelric could tell by that look in his eyes that he didn’t want this to happen: he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, just like the protester that was bleeding out on the ground in front of them.

  The cops slapped cuffs the two of them, and began dragging them to the street, where a few steam cars were waiting for them. Including a truck, one that they used to take prisoners to and from jail.

  He didn’t exactly like those things; he’d been in the back of them a few too many times, wondering whether or not that was the time they didn’t let him go after a few hours.

  Adelric looked over his shoulder at where Klara had been standing. She was gone: it looked like she’d made the smart choice and got out of there, before things got much worse.

  They all piled into the back of the truck, Brooks getting in the back with them, and the other cop slammed the door on them, leaving the three of them alone with one another.

  “Are you alright, Hiro?” Brooks asked quietly.

  “I’ll be fine,” Hiro said. “Besides: I think I should be the one asking that.”

  Brooks looked down at his feet. He was still shocked from what happened: Adelric could see it in the way his eyes looked distant, how he didn’t seem to have any emotions.

  “I don’t know how I’m feeling,” Brooks admitted. Adelric could see his hands starting to shake. “I don’t know what happened. I-I just…” He swallowed. “A-all I remember is that protester shouting, and the next thing I knew, he was…” He ran his hands through his hair and took a few deep breaths. “I didn’t even realize I was the one that did it until I realized the gun was in my hands.” He looked back up at Hiro. “I really messed up, didn’t I?”

  “I don’t know,” Hiro said. “They’re going to have a really hard time trying to turn this in your favor. The public likes you enough that you might just get suspended, put on probation, maybe spend some time in prison.”

  Brooks snorted. “Hiro, you and I both know that I wouldn’t last long in a prison. I’ve put away enough men that the guards will have a hard time keeping them all away from me. They’ll kill me before I can get through a night.” He looked back down at his feet and rubbed the back of his neck. “Sweet heavens, Hiro: I’m going to die. Whatever they end up doing to me, I’m going to end up dead.”

  Nobody said a word. The fact of the matter was, Brooks was right. This was something that he could be executed for. And even if the judge decided to be merciful, he would end up in prison. Adelric knew for a fact that disgraced cops didn’t do well in prison. And even if he didn’t end up getting prison time, this was going to piss off enough people that someone would probably try to be a hero and kill him. No matter what, Brooks’ life had ended the second he pulled that trigger.

  “Don’t say that,” Hiro finally said. “You aren’t going to die, Brooks: I’m not going to let you get killed over this.” She sat back in her seat. “We’re going to figure out who’s doing all this, and we’re going to take them out, before this place goes any farther south than it already has.”

  Adelric stared at her for a few seconds. What was she talking about? How could she manage to be so confident about that? Because as far as Adelric was concerned, they all just had to get the hell out of there, before Vorbereich fell in a fiery, hellish blaze.

  They all sat there in silence for the rest of the ride. One could’ve cut the tension with a knife. Brooks stared down at his feet and his hands, staring at the invisible blood on his hands; Hiro looked down at her lap, apparently concentrating on something; Adelric, however, couldn’t help but look between the two of them. What was going to happen to the two of them? He wasn’t exactly a cop lover–far from it–but… he couldn’t imagine that things for cops would be very well-received from here on out. They would always be the ones that murdered that protester, if he really had died. Hiro, when she went back to being a regular detective, would have a hard time doing her job, and it wouldn’t just be because she was a Hanjan woman. And Brooks might not even have a job once all was said and done.

  Hiro was right about one thing, though: they had to find the Archangel, before he could capitalize on all this chaos.

  The truck rolled to a stop in front of the station, where crowds were already starting to form. They looked angry, just like the people at the church were. The
re was already a line of cops in front of the station, making a clear path from the street to the front door of the station. Adelric could hear them shouting: they were calling them murderers, spouting verses from “The Holy Book” about heaven’s vengeance for the shedding of innocent blood; it was insane. How in the world had news gotten there so fast?

  The truck’s engine died, and the driver got out and began to walk around to the back to let them out. Brooks ran a hand through his hair as he realized what was going on, what he would have to go through, again. Adelric didn’t envy him; he definitely didn’t envy him.

  The back of the truck opened up, leaving them unshielded from the chaos that lay beyond it.

  Adelric didn’t know what to think of what he saw in the streets. It was like what happened back in front of that church, but even more chaotic. The people in front of the police station weren’t just shouting their frustrations at what they believed to be an unfair government: they were calling for the head of just about every police officer in the country. But especially Brooks. When they saw him, they all tried to rush the barricades, screaming all sorts of awful things.

  But one phrase stood out to Adelric: murderer.

  Murderer? He couldn’t help but wonder if they knew whether or not they actually knew if that protester was dead as Brooks and the officer that drove them there dragged Hiro and him to the station’s doors.

  Then again, did they really need to know? He’d shot a man for no apparent reason: if he’d been any other man, he’d be in handcuffs on his way to a dark cell to await a murder trial.

  And then, of course, there was the press, all of whom were shouting questions at them in an attempt to figure out just what was going on: “Inspector Brooks: what made you pull that trigger?” “What did that protester do to deserve to be shot?” “Inspector Brooks, do you have anything to say to the public?” Every question seemed to be another punch in the gut for poor Brooks. By the time they got into the station, the man looked like he was going to be very, very sick.

  “Brooks, I need you to get me to Berkowitz,” Hiro said the second that door was closed.