by Logan Jacobs
“Come on,” I said, “let’s head into the hallway so we can talk for a minute before we leave the party. I don’t want to head out until I have eyes on Tevian again, so we can keep watch for him from there.”
My friends followed me away from the exit toward one of the many side hallways that branched off of the main room, and as soon as we entered it, I turned around to make sure that we hadn’t been followed. The corridor behind us was empty, and the only thing in front of us was a closed door.
“Go check on that, would you?” I asked Ava. “I’d rather not be eavesdropped on by any nosy servants.”
The blonde assassin moved like a shadow down to the closed door, and she opened it so fast that even if someone had been on the other side, they would never have been able to retreat before she saw them. But there was no one there, and even after she looked up the stairs on the other side of the door, there was no sign of anyone nearby.
“Alright, so what progress did you make?” I asked when Ava rejoined us. “I got us in at a dancehall, one barrel a week, one hundred gold per barrel.”
“Damn!” Penny grinned. “Well, aren’t you impressive?”
“I like to think so,” I laughed. “So how about you three?”
“I talked to the head caterer for this party,” Dar said. “I found out how much she pays for the elven temple wine at her parties, and how much money she sometimes loses when people decide they’d rather be sober than drink that nasty shit.”
“That sounds promising,” I said.
“Oh, for sure,” Dar replied. “I gave her a taste of our whiskey, she obviously fucking loved it, and she said that she would take two barrels a week.”
“For how much?” I asked.
“A hundred gold each, my friend,” the halfling said with a grin. “And she said that was a fucking steal compared to what she paid for the temple wine.”
“Well done,” I said and clapped my friend on the shoulder. “That’s damn good work, Dar. If we keep this up, we’ll have the whole city in the palms of our hands before you know it.”
“She must have a lot of connections,” Penny said. “I mean, this party is a big fucking deal, so if she’s the caterer for it, then she really must know a lot of people.”
“Exactly,” I said, “and that’s just more people who will taste our product and want it for themselves.”
“I thought you’d be pleased,” Dar said. “How about you two? Who’d you talk to?”
“We met a very friendly halfling who runs the biggest restaurant on this side of town,” Penny said, “and he wants to buy one barrel from us every other week, at least until he sees how it sells. A hundred gold.”
“Good work,” I told the two women.
“Oh, that’s not all,” Ava said. “He also recommended that we talk to his cousin--”
“Halflings and our fucking families,” Dar interrupted. “I’m surprised he didn’t send you to his aunt, his grandfather, his third cousin once removed, his--”
“We get it,” I laughed. “You all love your extended families, don’t you?”
“Well, it’s not so much that we love them,” Dar sighed. “It’s more that they… I don’t know, they just exist, and if you’re not always trying to hook your cousin up with the best and newest deal, then can you really even call yourself a halfling? No. No, you can’t.”
“Let’s save your family drama for later, shall we?” Penny rolled her eyes. “You can write about it in your journal later.”
“I don’t have any such thing,” Dar said.
“Oh, no?” the pixie thief asked. “So do you mean to tell me that if I go to the apartment above the bakery and look under the mattress right now, that I won’t find a stash of papers with a series of dates and entries there?”
“How did you--” Dar’s face turned bright red. “Fuck! Did you fucking read it? How did you even fucking find it?”
“It’s not the most original place to hide a diary,” Penny said with a shrug. “And of course I read it! At least until I realized how boring it was.”
“It is not boring,” the halfling said. “It’s a record of… never mind, but just so you know, it’s not a diary. It’s a journal, thank you very much.”
“Oh, please excuse me,” the redhead snickered. “Well, your journal was certainly not the most interesting thing I’ve ever read. It was mostly just a record of things you’ve eaten. And things you were going to eat. And things you wanted to eat. Oh, and how long you slept. And when you slept. And how long you wanted to sleep.”
“Well, it’s not like I’m going to write down any sensitive information,” Dar huffed. “I know better than that, but if I write down what food I ate, then I’ll remember where I was when I ate the food and what I was doing that day, you know? That can be important. Remember how I was just telling you about how seriously one should take their snacking?”
“Fair enough,” I laughed but then turned back to Ava to redirect our conversation. “So, Ava, you were saying?”
“Right, so this restaurant owner recommended us to his cousin,” the blonde assassin said, “and when we talked to her, we found out that she runs a spa in town.”
“A very exclusive spa,” Penny added, “and one whose clients would very much appreciate a little something extra included in their services.”
“We made a deal with her, too,” Ava said. “One barrel every other week, and-- Penny, do you want to tell him?”
“And a hundred and ten gold per barrel,” the pixie thief said as she clapped her hands together.
“That must be one hell of an exclusive spa,” I said with a grin. “I knew I could count on you two to bring in a big fish.”
“You’re welcome,” Penny said and tossed her red hair over her shoulder.
“Do you want us to find any more clients tonight?” Ava asked. “And before you ask, I’m not too tired.”
“Me neither,” Dar said. “Even though I’m pretty sure no one was about to ask me that.”
“I’m sorry you’re feeling neglected,” Penny said and reached over to pat his head. “Should I get you some paper so you can write about your feelings?”
“You. Are. The. Worst,” Dar said and stuck his nose up into the air.
“Then it’s a good thing I’m also the most charming,” Penny said with a smirk.
“You all did really well tonight,” I said, “but I think it’s time for us to head out. We have more than enough business to really get us started in this city, and we should be able to get even more clients through word of mouth once our new contacts start selling our whiskey for us.”
“So, should we go back to our apartment now?” Dar asked.
“Not just yet,” I said.
“You know, I’m pretty sure our neighbors probably think that we’re all ghosts,” Penny said, “since we barely ever stop by the apartment we just rented.”
“Fair enough,” I laughed. “But I don’t particularly care what they think. I think we’ve all earned a good night’s sleep, but we need to take care of one more thing before we turn in for the night.”
“I have a feeling that it’s not going to be killing Tevian, is it?” Ava asked.
“No,” I said, “but you’re close. If we’re going to operate in the same city as Tevian, I need to know where he’s living and what his security looks like. You know, just in case.”
“So you want me to follow him?” Ava asked.
“Actually, I want all of us to follow him,” I said. “And that’s not because I have anything less than complete confidence in your abilities, Ava. I just want us all to be able to see it for ourselves, in case we need to use that information against him later.”
“Then we should probably get moving,” the blonde assassin said. “Tevian just moved toward the exit.”
“Shit!” Penny said. “How did you even see him? You weren’t even looking in that direction.”
“I was,” Ava said with a shrug. “I just wasn’t staring.”
�
��Good job, Ava,” I said. “Come on, let’s go get our weapons back before Tevian gets too much of a head start for us to follow him.”
The four of us moved quickly toward the exit, but we slowed down as soon as we reached the lobby and saw Tevian by the entry doors. He was in conversation with some other night elf, but the former captain of the guard seemed eager to escape, so after just a few minutes, he made his excuses and disappeared into the night.
We retrieved our weapons from the security team at the party, and as soon as Ava inspected them to make sure that none of them had been scratched or mishandled in any way, we hurried out the main doors to follow Tevian.
The night elf was already halfway down the road, but it was easy to see him in the light of all the Gold City’s torches and street lamps. We would have to be careful as we trailed after him, since it would be all too easy for him to turn around and see us in the bright lights.
“You two stay on that side of the road,” Ava whispered to Penny and me. “Dar, you walk down the middle, and I’ll stay on this side.”
We instantly did what the blonde assassin told us to, and it allowed us to mingle with the other people on the street well enough that we blended in. We walked quickly for close to a quarter of an hour before Tevian finally turned onto a street that was much quieter and darker than all the ones that we had been down before.
The night elf slowed down as he approached a large walled-off mansion, and the four of us hid behind huge trees on either street corner. After the guards at the front gate of the mansion both saluted Tevian, they allowed him inside and closed the gate after him. As soon as he was inside the walled-off estate, I let out a little sigh of relief and allowed my gaze to drift back to the estate itself-- or at least, to as much of it as I could see over the high, thick walls.
The walls looked like the ones that surrounded the Capital District in our home city, but they weren’t quite that tall. The roof of the mansion was still visible over the top of the wall, but I couldn’t see much else besides that. There were trees planted every two dozen feet along the outskirts of the wall, and as far as I could tell, there was only one gate in and out of the estate, and that was protected by two elven guards.
I craned my neck to the side to try to see through the front gate, and after I stretched so far that it felt like my neck might just pop off my body, I was able to see through the iron bars. Inside the walls of the estate, there were at least a dozen guards all posted in front of the mansion itself, and I immediately pulled back and glanced across the road to where Dar and Ava had hidden themselves.
There was the slightest flutter of a shadow from the other side of the street, and then I saw the beautiful assassin move soundlessly toward the back of the mansion. Dar stayed close on her heels, but Penny and I waited until the guards at the front gate turned to look in the other direction, and then we hurried after our friends.
After we all quickly circled the rest of the perimeter, we doubled back until we were beside one of the tall trees at the back of the mansion’s walls. There were no guards along any of the walls except for by the front gate, and there didn’t even seem to be any lookouts.
“There’s an awful lot of guards inside for somebody who’s supposed to be so beloved by this city,” I whispered under the shelter of the tree.
“It’s almost like he expects trouble or something,” Penny said as she glanced up into the thick branches above us.
“Especially given how he’s arranged them,” Ava added.
“What do you mean?” Dar asked.
“He didn’t really post them as lookouts,” the assassin explained. “If he wanted his guards to just serve as guards instead of soldiers, then he would have posted them all around the perimeter of these walls.”
“So you saw them inside the courtyard of the mansion?” I asked.
“I did,” Ava replied.
“But you were on the other side of the street, so how did you--” Penny stopped herself. “You know what? It doesn’t matter. Like I needed more proof you were the most badass assassin who’s ever lived.”
“I appreciate that,” Ava said with a smile. “But my point is that Tevian has just stationed most of his guards inside, and that makes me think that he is ready for a fight. In fact, he might actually be looking for one.”
“I mean, I understand that Tevian’s paranoid,” Penny said, “but wouldn’t he be smart enough to post guards plus soldiers? Why would he only have them inside the walls?”
“I don’t know,” Ava said, “but something feels off.”
“Do you think there are more guards hidden somewhere?” I asked.
“Something like that,” the assassin replied as she glanced up into the branches of the tree above us. “The guards inside seem legitimate, but they should be covering much more area. They should be spread out, not just stationed in neat little rows inside the front gate.”
“Maybe he’s just that stupid?” Dar suggested.
“Tevian might be a lot of things,” I said, “but he’s certainly not stupid.”
“So what does that mean, exactly?” Penny demanded. “Is someone watching us from somewhere secret or something?”
“Maybe,” Ava said as her gaze continued to wander up and down the street, until it finally came to rest on the tree two dozen paces away from us. “In fact…”
“Ava?” I murmured when she trailed off. “What is it?”
“Down!” Ava cried out, just as a dagger suddenly sped toward us from out of the tree.
Chapter 6
I grabbed Ava, twisted our bodies as I jumped to the side, and crashed down a few feet away, just as the dagger buried itself into the tree where we had just been. Dar and Penny had dropped to their stomachs when Ava told them to, but even after the dagger landed, they stayed perfectly still.
The moment my feet hit the ground, I released my grip on Ava, and the beautiful assassin stepped away from me and pulled the sleek recurve bow from her back in under a second. She had notched an arrow before I even saw her draw one, and she immediately aimed it at the tree where the dagger had come from.
She released the arrow as easily as an exhale, and as soon as it disappeared into the thick tree branches, we heard a quiet thunk, and then a body tumbled out of the tree straight down toward the pavement.
The arrow that had planted itself in the attacker’s chest was a pretty good indication that the bastard was dead, but Ava moved toward him with one of her daggers drawn just in case. When she reached his side, she prodded his shoulder with her foot, and the man gave a little gasp as blood trickled out the corner of his mouth.
The blonde assassin knelt beside him, pressed her knife against his throat, and then looked to me for confirmation.
As much as I would have liked to interrogate him for information, I had a feeling that this man wouldn’t be able to tell me much that I couldn’t just figure out for myself. Besides, the arrow had gone straight into the upper left part of his chest, and from the look of it, he wouldn’t last long, anyway. It would be better just to mercy kill him.
“Go ahead,” I told Ava.
The assassin swiped down the man’s throat with her blade, and a fine mist of blood sprayed into the air and coated the blonde’s forearms. As she started to wipe off the gunk on the man’s clothes, the man himself gave one final gurgle, but his eyes turned glassy and his body fell still before he could make any other noise.
“Help me prop him up,” Ava said. “I don’t want him to bleed all over the street.”
I quickly jerked the man’s corpse into a sitting position, so his open throat bled down onto his chest instead of out onto the street. While Ava mopped up the little bit of blood that had already spilled onto the pavement, I held the man steady and looked over at Dar and Penny to make sure they were okay.
“Everybody good?” I hissed.
Dar and Penny helped each other to their feet and hurried over to join us, but when they reached us, the pixie thief started to pat herself down like
she was trying to see where the dagger had hit her.
“Hey, you okay?” Ava asked as she looked up at Penny. “He didn’t have time to throw another one, and I didn’t think the first dagger--”
“Yeah, I’m okay,” Penny said as she patted down the front of her new gown. “That was just, uh…”
“A shitty way to ruin your new party dress?” Dar guessed.
“It’s hardly ruined,” the redhead said with a roll of her eyes. “It’s just a little dirty now. I was going to say that it was just a close call, you know?”
“I think that explains it,” Ava said as she finished wiping up the last of the blood from the street.
“Explains what?” I asked.
“It explains the strange way that Tevian has configured the guards inside and at the gate of his mansion,” the blonde assassin replied. “I think he must have hired assassins as extra guards.”
“By the Ancients, he really is fucking paranoid,” Dar swore.
“I think that’s probably a safe assumption,” I said. “And you’re sure this is an assassin?”
“Yeah, I’m sure.” Ava fidgeted with the dead man’s sleeve until she finally found the hidden crest of the Assassin’s Guild printed there. “See?”
“I guess he just wasn’t a very good assassin,” the pixie thief said. “I mean, like you said-- he didn’t even have time to throw a second dagger before you killed him.”
“You mean before she shot him right out of the fucking tree without a bit of a glance,” Dar said with a grin. “How did you even see him? I can’t see shit through those branches.”
“Oh, I didn’t see him,” Ava replied. “I just saw where the dagger came from, so I was able to aim my shot based on that.”
“Total badass,” Dar repeated.
“Well, it was a good shot,” the blonde said with a little blush. “But it’s not like he was a bad assassin-- it was a solid throw, and if I hadn’t felt that something was off, he probably would have taken one of us down and then been able to kill another one while we all scrambled to respond.”
“Yeah, but he didn’t,” Penny said. “So that must mean he was pretty shitty at his job.”
