by Arthur Slade
Thord’s face had changed—it didn’t appear so set in stone. When I looked to Megan, I was surprised. There was a hint of remorse in her eyes.
“Explain something.” She continued to point the bow at me. “How did you escape?”
“My brother gave me a paralysis tincture that night. He wanted to save me. He didn’t see me as a threat, in fact said I could retire on a pig farm. That potion was why I couldn’t answer either of you when you came to my door to warn me. I thank you for that.” I meant those words. Then I told them about my escape, including seeing Maestru Alesius and facing my brother. I skipped the part about falling down the mountainside because that would let them know my daggers were enchanted. And I certainly didn’t mention Brax. “Once I'd dodged the Immortals, I used the tunnels Alesius had shown me and escaped through an unguarded gate. Then I hid in a cave for three days and walked to Bekon, and then took a wagon to Myra to hunt Gregum.”
They both stared at me. After looking me up and down, Megan lowered the bow. Her gaze lingered on my eye patch. “I believe you," she said. "Your brother wants everything to be perfect. And you, missing an eye, are not perfect. He wouldn’t trust you with anything.”
“You don’t have to make it sound like I’m useless,” I said. I tried to keep my tone light but failed.
“Oh, you are far from useless,” she said. “I have great respect for you, Carmen.”
I’d hate to be someone she didn’t respect, I thought. But before I could reply Thord said, “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry? That you didn’t believe me?”
“No. We were right to come to that conclusion. And Megan is correct: Corwin wouldn’t trust you because of what you lack. His mistake. I don’t want to repeat it, so I’m willing to trust you.” He rubbed at his chin. “I am sorry I punched you.”
“That was a punch?” I said. “I thought a butterfly had brushed my cheek.”
That got a chuckle out of both of them.
“Besides," I said. "We wouldn’t be having this lovely conversation now if you hadn’t punched me."
Megan knelt down beside me and untied the ropes. Then she rubbed a healer’s sap onto my cut earlobe and ribs. Her touch was actually gentle.
10
It's Survival
I shook out the tingling from my limbs. The bandages on my hand flapped in the air, but didn't come off.
“How did you hurt yourself?” Thord grabbed my arm and turned it so he could stare at my palm. His hand was warm.
“Oh, that? I threw acid at Gregum and it spilled onto my hand.”
“When did all this happen again?” Megan asked.
“A day ago,” I said.
“It healed quickly,” Thord noted.
I pulled my hand away and peeled off the last of my bandage to reveal pink skin. There was no sign of a wound.
I hid my hand. “I’m a quick healer, that’s all. Or it was a bad batch of acid.”
Thord frowned and looked like he would pursue that line of questioning, but instead he asked, “Why are you here, Carmen?”
“I saw Megan’s name on the list. I wanted to warn her that my brother is after her.”
“Well, that’s not news,” Megan said somewhat haughtily. “That’s why I’m hiding out in Avenus. We got as far and fast away as possible from the emperor and your snake of a brother.” She was hooking her bow to her belt. "But thanks. I appreciate you traveling all that distance to get here."
“Of course, you knew Corwin is after you," I said. "What I wanted to warn you of was that Corwin knows exactly where you are. That’s what the scroll means. It lists this inn as your location.”
“But how did he know I was staying here?” Megan asked.
I pointed at the floor. “My guess is the innkeeper sent a message. Perhaps he’s making money from you and from informing the emperor.”
“The innkeeper was to warn us if anyone came looking,” Megan said. She pointed at a small bell in the ceiling. "That's why I knew you were coming to my room."
“Yes, he rang that bell,” I said. “I saw him pull the string. But he also took my bribe, so I guess he didn’t care where his money came from. And I’m sure the emperor’s underlings are paying a rather hefty fee.”
“I’ll kill him,” Megan said.
"We can't just go killing innkeepers," Thord reminded her. "That'll draw attention."
"Well, I'd settle for a good maiming."
“Just hold your temper for now," Thord said as he took the scroll from Megan. She looked like she was on the verge of lashing out at him. "How did you get these papers from Gregum?"
“I walked into his family’s mansion, evaded his guards, fought with Gregum, and stole the scrolls.”
“You did that on your own?” Megan said. “With… with one eye?”
“Unlike you, I paid attention in class. I only needed one eye for that.” I was tempted to whip my patch off and reveal my dragon eye. I imagined that would make them stagger back. But it was better to keep as many secrets as possible. That was another thing Maestru Alesius had taught me.
“And you didn’t kill Gregum,” Thord said. Why did everyone ask me that?
“No. I intended to use the corporthium pill and wipe out all his memories. But failed.”
“You aren’t like your brother at all, are you?” Megan sounded a little disappointed. “I’m surprised the same mother birthed you two.”
“It's a surprise to me, too.” I felt a moment of sadness when I thought of the mother I’d never known.
“And all this happened two nights ago.” Thord tapped the scroll on his open palm. “How did you get here so quickly? It’s two weeks by cart, five days by ship.”
“I—” I tried to think up a lie that would work and then decided lying would only add more suspicion. “That’s a secret.”
“It’s a secret I’d like to know.” Thord continued tapping the scroll on his other hand.
“If you trusted me,” I said, “maybe I’d tell you.”
He now tapped the side of his head with the scroll. “You must have a swan, because it’s the only thing that could travel that far that fast. You somehow got it from the swannery. Maybe one of the younger ones that wasn’t imprinted yet. Is that how you got out of the fortress?”
“The swannery was heavily guarded,” Megan said. “Stealing one would be almost impossible.”
“Nothing is impossible,” I said. I had to work to make my voice sound confident. “I may have stumbled across a swan when I was outside the fortress.” It was better to let them think that was what happened. “I’ve shared my story. Now tell me how you escaped.”
“No secret tunnels for me,” Megan said. “I got lucky, that’s all. I went down to the gates. Every one of them was being watched by Immortals with crossbows. But the assassin who had gone before me had fallen in such a way as to hold the door open. And I could see was which direction the bolt in his chest had come from. I jumped out with a shield on my arm, and it deflected the next bolt. The Immortal had made the mistake of standing too close. I ran toward him, and the next bolt came right through the shield and clipped my shoulder. But he tried to fix a third bolt. He died with that bolt still in his hand.”
She had killed an Immortal? This impressed me. They were legendarily skilled.
“And you.” I pointed at Thord. “I know you had wings.”
“Yes. I flew with the wings I’d made as a project. That was pure luck. And I happened to see Megan as she was dashing toward the ten thousand steps. Which, of course, were also watched. I swooped down and—”
“—scared the devils out of me. But it didn’t take long to convince me not to take the stairs.”
“And, well, we tested my wings to the fullest,” Thord said. They were completing each other's sentences, I noticed. “I was very pleased with how well they worked.”
“And you both came here?” I asked.
Thord nodded. “Yes. We agreed it was a far enough distance to give us some safety. But appar
ently not safe enough.”
“Well, I have a suggestion,” I said. “A plan, in fact.”
Megan crossed her arms. “If it’s taking on the emperor and getting revenge on your brother, count me out. I plan on catching a ship and making my way to a fishing island. Maybe even hunt for the unknown lands. Wherever it was the wizards disappeared to.”
“I would rather face our enemies,” I said. “But you would run away.”
“It's not running away! It's survival. Your plan sounds like charging straight toward certain death.”
I grabbed the doll from the floor. “Gregum poked a pin through each of the dolls to remember how he stuck a blade in each of our friends.”
Megan took the doll from me and stared at it. “You already told us about his poking habit.”
“It’s a sign of the lengths they will go to hunt you down,” I said. “Both of you. I don’t believe we’ll be safe anywhere in all of Ellos. And we'd kind of stick out on a tiny island.”
She was still rolling the doll around.
“I’m not saying we should face them directly,” I said. “But Maestru Alesius suggested one person who could help us: Banderius.”
“Banderius?” Thord asked. “I’m sure he, of all assassins, would be in hiding. Or dead.”
“In hiding, yes,” I said. “Dead, no. We’d know if he was dead. Corwin would gloat about it by paying every town crier to bleat out the news. Banderius is the greatest of all assassins.”
“Are they after you, too?” Thord asked. I wasn’t certain if there was a tone of accusal.
“They think I’m dead,” I said. “There was an… an accident with the swan.”
“So they aren’t hunting for you?” Megan said. “But what, and excuse me for saying this, can a one-eyed assassin and two barely blooded assassins with death prices on them do?”
“Oh,” I said. And I relished the moment as I reached up toward my face. “I'm not one-eyed.”
I removed my patch.
11
That Thing
Megan’s eyes bulged like they were about to pop out of her skull. Thord's jaw dropped open, and he blinked several times.
I enjoyed their shock. Every second. I may have even chuckled.
“What is that!” Megan pointed.
I winked with my dragon eye. “It’s my new eye.”
“Absolutely amazing!” Thord said. “It glows. Can you see through it?”
“Yes,” I answered. “In fact, I see farther and clearer through it than I do with the eye I was born with.”
“But what is that thing?” Megan had edged further away from me as if my dragon eye would leap out of its socket and strike her.
I hadn’t thought this moment through. How many lies was I prepared to tell? “Maestru Alesius gave it to me,” I said. Oh, the falsehoods slipped off my tongue so very smoothly, but to explain where the eye really came from would let them know about Brax. And I didn't trust them with that information. Yet. “It was a graduation gift.”
“Did he have it in a jar full of eyes in his study?” Megan asked.
“Yes,” I said. "Yes! Good guess." I nodded, trying to convince her and myself this was true. “But there was only one eye. He took it out of a small jar full of brine and helped me put it in. It burned at first, but then I could see light for the first time in years. And then I saw shapes, and finally my vision came clear. He said I was stronger because I'd graduated without the help of two eyes.”
“It’s so gray.” Thord stood close enough his apple-scented breath wafted over me. Living on a mountaintop and not having had a bath for two weeks meant I likely smelled rather ripe. I certainly didn’t give off the scent of apples and cinnamon! I stepped back, but he followed. “It’s not the same as your other one. The pupil. It’s… it’s like a lizard’s.”
“It’s not a lizard’s eye!"
"Well, where did Maestru Alesius get it from?" Megan asked. "Or did he form it out of some sort of magical, glowing clay?"
"He didn't tell me. He probably saw it in some bazaar during his recruitment journeys. You know how he liked to collect oddities. Helpful oddities, that is."
Megan had lost her fear, and both she and Thord were right up in front of me now like I was a bug they had just discovered. “It’s an interesting look,” she said. “It makes you stand out, though.”
“Yes, it does.” I had backed right into the wall. “I need to find a way to hide it—I mean other than the patch. That's too memorable in case someone is looking for me. And it blocks my vision.”
“There are charmers in the market," Megan said. "They’ll sell spells to change your eye color, so that might work. I can’t even hazard a guess how long a charm would last, but the more you pay the stronger the charm.”
“That’s a good idea,” I said. They were both leaning far too close. “Enough about my eye.” I stepped to the side and got away from the wall and them. I pointed at the window. “Outside that window is a world full of people who would capture or kill us for a bounty. We are much stronger together than we are apart.”
Megan looked at the doll in her hand. “He was really going to stick a pin in this once I was dead?”
I nodded.
“It would have saved me a lot of work if you’d killed him.” She was squeezing the doll tightly now.
“I’m sorry. I messed up his face. So that's a start.”
She stuffed the doll in the pocket of her cloak. “I’ll keep this. And you might be right about Banderius; perhaps he’ll be able to tell us how to avoid the emperor. I'll go as far as finding him and getting his advice.” She winked at me. “There is one more reason to see him: I’ve heard he’s incredibly handsome.”
“I do hope that’s true,” I said. I surprised myself because I rarely made comments like that. Then again, I really didn't have any girl friends to share those sorts of thoughts with.
“He’s old enough to have fathered either of you,” Thord huffed. “How are we going to find this incredibly pretty assassin?”
I grabbed the second scroll. "Someone wrote his name on top of this, but the rest of the writing is in Oldtongue and none of us can read it. Even Maestru Alesius didn't know very much Oldtongue. The only person I know who could read it was Maestru Beatrix. But…” I let my answer hang there.
Megan and Thord glanced at each other. It was as if they knew something I didn’t.
“What’s that look mean?” I asked.
“She’s alive,” Thord said. “Librarians are surprisingly hard to kill.”
“She survived?” My heart was thumping hard.
“Yes,” Megan said. “That’s what he’s telling you. And she’s in the safest place of all: she’s hiding at the Library of Avenus.”
“She’s right here in the city!” I nearly shouted this. I wanted to clap with joy.
“Apparently librarians have a code that is even deeper and older than the assassins’ oath," Thord said. He pushed a lock of his hair to the side of his forehead. "So they are protecting her. That protection doesn’t extend to us. I asked.”
“But how did you find her?”
“She found me,” Thord said. “I went to the library to research islands.”
“Islands?”
“We’ve spent the last few weeks dreaming up every imaginable way to hide from the Empire,” he said. “I was digging into some older map scrolls, hoping to discover where the wizards fled to. Maestru Beatrix came right up and said, ‘Thord, that’s ten points off for a bad mask.’ I never got high marks in disguise class.”
“You barely passed,” I said.
“Well, you don’t have to rub salt in the wound.” His laugh made his eyes light up. “Maestru Beatrix escaped the Red Fortress with only the clothes on her back and one book in her hand.”
“Which book?" I practically spat the question out. "There were thousands of books in her library, some of them amazingly rare. Which was the one she would save?"
“Only you would ask that question,”
Megan said. She had curled up her lip in a snide manner.
“I didn't ask her,” Thord said. “We didn't talk long because it would arouse suspicion. But she promised to help in any way she can.”
“We must see her. At once! At once.” I couldn't keep the joy from my voice.
“Yes, yes,” Megan said. “We'll go right now, but put your patch back on. We don’t want people staring at you.”
It only took a few moments for them to pack. Then I followed my classmates out the door.
12
Two Drops of Blood
Megan charged down the stairs ahead of us, stomping the whole way. She wanted to be heard, and it worked: the noise drew the glances of several patrons. The innkeeper’s eyes widened, and he stopped shining a brass goblet. He grinned, perhaps thinking of how he’d gotten money from all of us. Then he spit into the goblet and continued shining it.
He nearly spat again when Megan threw a dagger at him. It stuck below his right arm, making him drop the goblet, and pinned his shirt to a support post. His jaw flapped open, hiding his double chins.
Megan was over the counter in a heartbeat, her second dagger poked under his jaw.
“One word about us to anyone,” she said, “and this blade will slide between your ribs and tickle your heart while you’re lying in your greasy bed. I will wake you up for your death. Understand?”
He nodded very carefully, not wanting to cut his chin on the blade. Sweat was already dripping down his forehead.
She yanked her other dagger from the post, slid over the counter and led us out of the inn.
“Was that wise?” Thord said. “You displayed your skill with a dagger. People will guess you're an assassin and someone might come snooping after us. There's a lot of coin on our heads.”
“It wasn’t wise,” she said without a pinch of regret. “But it sure felt good.”
