The Assassin's Blade

by H J Peterson

  Maddox cursed and looked out the window as the other nobles began to panic. Friedrich could see the wheels in the man’s head turning, but what he was thinking, Friedrich couldn’t be sure.

  “Not all of them,” Maddox said. He unlatched one of the windows and threw it open, allowing cool, spring air into the room.

  “We’re on the fourth floor, boy; we can’t get down like that without dying,” Lord Faust snapped.

  “I’m a Dodger: I can get all of us down there safely,” Maddox said. He offered Manfred II his hand. “Your grace, you first.”

  “Not until you can prove you can do it safely,” the emperor’s guard said gruffly, stepping between him and Maddox.

  Maddox’s fists clenched. He looked ready to punch a wall. Or that stupid guard. Friedrich was getting pretty frustrated, himself. What the hell was wrong with these guys? Would they really rather die in a fire than trust Maddox? Why didn’t they even want to take that chance a life that had just been offered to them on a silver platter?

  “I’ll go first, Maddox,” Friedrich said. “Can you promise me this is safe?”

  “As safe as escaping a burning building from a fourth story window could possibly be,” Maddox assured him.

  Well, that was not at all reassuring.

  He supposed he didn’t have much of a choice, though: he could already feel the temperature rising.

  “What do you want me to do?” Friedrich asked.

  “Jump out the window.”

  Wait: what?

  “Son, you’re crazy,” Bouchard said. “Are you trying to kill your own lord?”

  “Friedrich, do you trust me?” Maddox gave him a look as he said it. A desperate look, too much like the one he’d had on his face at the court martial.

  Friedrich nodded, despite his better judgment. “I trust you.”

  “Then jump out of the damned window, and do your best to not flail.”

  He nodded and got up on the windowsill-

  Oh hell, oh hell, oh hell! Four stories hadn’t sounded that tall until that moment.

  He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. Please, heaven, don’t let me die!

  Friedrich jumped.

  LV. HIRO

  “Adelric, what the hell are you talking about?”

  That was the only thing Hiro was able to say before the explosion rocked the earth like the righteous hand of heaven.

  She cursed as she put a hand on the wall next to her to steady herself. What the hell was that?

  “That was a bomb, wasn’t it?” Adelric asked. He was starting to turn bright green, apparently ready to vomit.

  So, that made two of them, then.

  “Come on,” Hiro ordered as she began to run down the corridor, in the direction of the explosion.

  “Wh-where are you going?” Adelric asked as he slowly followed behind her.

  “Where the hell do you think I’m going?” Hiro asked, glancing back at him. “We’re going to figure out where that explosion came from!”

  She didn’t have to keep looking at Adelric to know that he really, really didn’t like that idea. She could even see that wincing look he always got on his face whenever she suggested something dangerous like this in her mind’s eye.

  Heavens; she didn’t think she’d ever met an Alchemist that got so damned scared about the possibility of getting hurt, before: normally, Shapers were the first ones to suggest running towards the danger, guns blazing.

  “A-are you sure this is a good idea?” Adelric asked as they shoved their way through crowds of people trying to get away from the explosion. It seemed that they weren’t very close to where the explosion came from, which was good; the farther away they got from the interrogation cells, the less important the things that were damaged would be. “I-I mean, I don’t think it’s a very good idea to go over there: it’s not going to be very safe-“

  “Life isn’t very safe,” Hiro retorted. “Besides: I don’t think the man ratting on the mob should be lecturing me on what’s safe and what isn’t.”

  Adelric didn’t respond to that. Once again, Hiro could almost see his face in her mind’s eye: this time, his face was white as a sheet, realizing just how precarious his situation was.

  It didn’t take very long for the crowds to thin and for signs of the explosion to show. Black smoke began to fill the hallway, forcing Hiro to cover her mouth and nose with the crook of her elbow and breathe through the fabric of her shirt. The walls were stained black, debris scattered around the hallway and stifling heat rising from unseen fires. This was where the bomb was planted. At least, it was close to it.

  Hiro racked her brain for information, trying to figure out what the bomber, whoever it was, was trying to take out. That portion of the basement didn’t exactly have anything important in it: the only things she could think of that were down there was a cleaning supply closet, the basement bathroom and shower room, the lockers, and that tunnel…

  She froze in her spot, connecting the dots in her mind. The tunnel that lead from the Vorbereicher House to the police headquarters in case of emergency was accessed from this part of the basement. The explosion wasn’t specifically attacking the police headquarters: there would’ve been a lot more damage to the police headquarters if that had been the case. The attack was on the Vorbereicher House.

  Wait: wasn’t the king’s council supposed to be meeting that day?

  Oh, hell! The most important men in Vorbereich were in that building. The bomber was trying to knock out the leaders of Vorbereich in one fell swoop!

  She cursed, turning around and heading back the way she came. Damn it! All she could really do was pray that everybody had been able to get out of the building before the explosion went off.

  “What is it?” Adelric asked as he followed close behind her. “What are you thinking?”

  “That tunnel’s the evacuation tunnel from the Vorbereicher House,” Hiro explained. “The bomb wasn’t meant for us: the fact that we were hit too was a happy accident. They’re targeting the Vorbereicher House.” She looked back at him. “The King’s Council is meeting, today. Whoever this bomber is, their plan was to take out the leadership of the country in one blow.”

  “Oh, sweet heaven!” Adelric said. “Wh-what’s your plan, then?”

  In all honesty, Hiro had no idea what she was going to do. But… well, she had to do something, didn’t she? She just couldn’t allow herself to stand by and do nothing while the leaders of her country were killed, even if she thought they were some of the slimiest snakes to walk the earth.

  “Whatever I have to do,” Hiro said through clenched teeth. “I’m going to do whatever I have to do.”

  ***

  The Vorbereicher House was absolutely destroyed. Flames clawed their way out of every window of that building, the stones scorched black, the crackling and popping of burning wood echoing throughout the city. Three cars from the city fire department were there, doing what they could do to put out the flames before any of the surrounding buildings could catch fire; lucky for them, the building was in the middle of a plaza, far enough away that the buildings around it weren’t in danger. The reporters and civilians there all seemed to have the good sense to stay away from the building, all of them standing on the sidewalk by the street out in front of what had once been the center of the Vorbereicher government. And, standing off to the side, away from the reporters and the nervous onlookers, were the men that had been in the building when the bomb went off: Manfred II, the members of his cabinet, Friedrich Eltz and his body guard-

  Wait: what the hell was Friedrich doing there?

  “What happened?” Hiro asked as she jogged towards the noblemen and the officers standing by them, Adelric right on her heels. Brooks, who was writing something down on a small pad of paper, looked up at her, squinting. “What do we know, thus far?”

  “I see you’re back from your little work with the mob,” he said, looking her down and frowning. “Is that… is that soot all over your uniform? You
look like you just ran through a furnace!”

  “Forget about how I look!” Hiro snapped. She held her hand out, pointing at the crumbling remains of the Vorbereicher House. “What the hell happened here? And if you tell me that a bomb went off, I might literally kill you.”

  Brooks smirked. “So, other than the obvious, every door leading outside was blocked off, and our Alchemists are pretty sure that some sort of accelerant was used. We’re pretty sure that the goal was more to kill the men of the King’s Council than to destroy the building itself, though they sure as hell accomplished that.”

  Hiro cursed, slicking her hair back with the palm of her hand as she looked up at the Vorbereicher House. It was just as she’d expected, but… well, that didn’t make her feel any less sick to her stomach.

  “Do we know if anybody died?” Hiro asked, looking back at Brooks.

  “Everybody made it out, thank heaven,” Brooks said. He nodded at a young man dressed in the reds of the Königstadt Guard, who was lying down on the ground as he tried to breathe right, again. Hiro recognized him: it was Maddox, Friedrich’s Gelynian guard. “That bastard over there managed to get everybody out. He ended up staying in that building a little too long for comfort, and he hasn’t been able to breathe right since he got out of there: the second the car from Beloved Maximillia gets here, we’re going to ship him off to the hospital.”

  “Is he going to be alright?” Hiro asked.

  “Our Doc thinks so, but you never know: he could develop a nasty case of pneumonia.”

  Friedrich heard that, and he didn’t like it. He looked at the two of them like they’d just killed his dog or something. “What?”

  “I wouldn’t be too worried about it, lord Heir,” Brooks assured him. “Maddox is young, our Doc said that he seems alright, and he’ll be getting the best care available at Beloved Maximillia: the only people that die of pneumonia these days are babies, old people, and people that don’t get to the hospital in time.”

  “He’s right,” Maddox wheezed from his spot on the ground. Oh, he did not sound good. When the hell was that car from the hospital supposed to get there, again? “This is not the worst thing that’s happened to me, Friedrich: I’ll be just fine.”

  He began to cough, hacking up whatever was still settled in his lungs. He groaned once he was done, the Doc telling him to lay back down and relax while he performed another examination to make sure he wasn’t starting to develop pneumonia, already.

  “I certainly hope you’ll be alright,” Manfred II said. “I plan on giving you a medal on Friday for saving all of our lives.”

  Maddox’s cheeks turned bright red. “Y-your grace, you really don’t have to do that: it wasn’t a big deal-“

  “Nonsense,” Manfred II said with a flick of his hand. “You helped us all out of that window, when frankly, we’d probably still be arguing in that room right now.”

  Hiro found herself giving Maddox a look. Seriously? Why was he the only one that could figure out that they should jump out of a window to get out?

  She looked around at the men that had escaped the Vorbereicher House. Wait a second: if they all jumped out of the window of the King’s Council’s meeting room on the fourth floor, shouldn’t they all have broken legs or something? Why the hell was Maddox the only one that was hurt?

  “How did you people get out of the building, exactly?” Hiro asked. “And how did you manage it without shattering your legs?”

  “I’m a Dodger, Inspector,” Maddox said. “Nothing I couldn’t handle.”

  Sirens began to sound in the distance. Hiro recognized the sound: their hospital car had arrived, it seemed.

  “You know, the higher ups are saying that they want one of us to ride with Maddox over to the hospital,” Brooks said, looking back at her. “You want to do it?”

  Hiro frowned. “Why?”

  He leaned a little closer and put a hand by his mouth, so the people around them wouldn’t hear what he had to say. “Because other than our very own Commissioner, he was the only one in that building that could possibly shed some light on what happened in there.”

  “But… why not you?” Hiro asked.

  “C’mon, Inspector,” Maddox coughed. “I’m not that bad, am I?”

  Hiro looked over at the poor man, then sighed, looking back over at Brooks. “Is… anybody else allowed in the car?”

  “If by anybody else, you mean any Eltzs, then no,” Brooks said. Friedrich glanced back at the two of them, confused. “Don’t worry, Ikeda: you don’t have to sit in a hospital car with your ex-boyfriend.”

  Friedrich didn’t respond to that. He didn’t even try to defend himself. He just looked away and down at his feet, almost as if… almost as if he was ashamed of it.

  As angry as she still was at him for breaking her heart like that, seeing him like that… well it did hurt a little. It had been a few months since the two of them had seen each other for the first time since the break-up, and in those months, she’d seen him grown a lot. He went from being that timid boy that couldn’t say no to his father to a married man that stood up for what he believed.

  It was… good to see, she guessed. She just wished that that side of him had come out a long, long time ago.

  “Friedrich, I didn’t mean it like that,” Hiro said, slicking down her hair, again. “I-I just… you’re married, now, and I just-“

  “No, I get it,” Friedrich said. “You don’t need to explain yourself: I know that things between the two of us still aren’t great, and I…” He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “It’s fine; don’t worry about it.” He glanced down at Maddox, shoving his hands into his pockets. “I… think I’m going to get Chayim, head over to the hospital. Hopefully, we’ll meet you there.”

  “Friedrich, wait-“

  The words caught in Hiro’s throat. It was no use: he was already walking away, not listening to her.

  She was tempted to run over to him, explain herself, but she didn’t get the chance. The Docs from the hospital were already there, loading Maddox onto a stretcher, telling him to relax. It was time for her to go.

  “Hiro-“

  “I don’t want to talk about it.” That was what she told Brooks as she followed Maddox and the Docs over to the car to head over to the hospital.

  LVI. ADELRIC

  “What the hell happened?”

  Adelric was sitting across from Chief Berkowitz with that lordling Friedrich, facing down one of the most intimidating men he’d ever met. He’d thought this just about every time he faced Berkowitz, but he looked at him like every other beat cop he’d ever met: like a crime waiting to happen. He might have guessed that that was just because he was a street rat, but he looked at the lordling like that, too. He stared at everything with suspicion, waiting for something bad to happen, trying to see straight into their souls to see their intentions.

  It was awful. Adelric knew that he hadn’t done anything wrong that time, and he still felt terrible.

  “Well, sir, somebody planted a bomb in the chambers of the Vorbereicher House and nearly killed us all,” Friedrich said. “Luckily for all of us, though, my personal guard, Carlin Maddox, was able to get everybody out.”

  “Ah, yes,” Berkowitz said, shuffling through a few papers. “We got a cable from Beloved Maximillia about him. He’s checked in, seems to be doing alright: they’ll keep him under observation for the next forty-eight hours, though. Never know if you’re going to end up with pneumonia after being in a burning building.”

  “Do we know who did this?” Adelric asked.

  “Who the hell do you think did this, Biermann?” Berkowitz asked. He leaned forward. “I don’t suppose you know a thing about this, do you?”

  “I would’ve told you about it if I did,” Adelric said. And he meant it. The New Dawn had lost any sympathy he might have had for them.

  Berkowitz looked at the lordling, an eyebrow raised. “I don’t suppose you happen to know anything about this bombing, do you?

 
; Friedrich shook his head. “I’m certain you know more than I do about it, sir.”

  Berkowitz sighed, running a hand through his hair. “So, we’re back to square one? Great. Just damned perfect.”

  Friedrich deflated. “So… are they just going to get away with trying to kill us?”

  “Unless somebody can figure out a way to get the information we need, that’s exactly what’s going to happen.”

  And the thing was, Adelric knew exactly how he might get that information.

  “I think I have an idea,” Adelric said sheepishly after a few seconds, raising his hand like some schoolboy.

  And dear heavens, it was a terrible idea.

  Adelric knew it from the moment he thought of it, and even Berkowitz had seemed reluctant to let him go through with it. Klara was still in a prison cell down in the basement of the police headquarters, shackled to a wall after she broke the nose of one guard and dislocated the jaw of another in a second escape attempted that had to be stopped by a few Docs and a Dodger. He kept telling himself that she wouldn’t pose much of a danger to him with her hands shackled above her head, but his gut told him otherwise. His gut told him that as long as she was alive, she was a threat to him.

  He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck as he stepped foot into the corridor where Klara’s cell was. And all this heartache just to get some information…

  He froze.

  The door to Klara’s cell was wide open.

  Adelric didn’t know what to do. Was there somebody in there? No, that couldn’t be right: the door would still be closed, and a guard would still be outside the cell.

  He ran towards the door, taking out the piece of coal in his sleeve and rubbing it all over his hands. His mind screamed at him to run the other way and to get someone to help, but he didn’t. Instead, he let the coal ignite in his hands and ran through the doorway-

  Adelric yelped as he was thrown against the wall of the cell like a rag doll by some invisible force.

  He threw fire across the cell, frantic.