The Queen's Blade III - Invisible Assassin

by T C Southwell

  Horns blew, signalling the battalion's readiness to ride out, and bright pennants were raised on lances. The Queen's colours, her own, the battalion's, its commander's and Blade's, given to him by the Queen in his absence, a black dagger on a crimson field trimmed with silver. All but the battalion's and its commander's were trimmed with gold or silver, glittering as they snapped in the wind.

  The precious trim denoted the high rank of the banner's owner, and this battalion carried two royal pennants and one noble, when few could boast a noble one. The palace gates swung open, and the soldiers thundered into the city. The populace hurried out of the road to let them pass, gaping at the stern-faced cavalrymen. Chiana sent another prayer after them, that they would find Blade alive and bring him safely to the palace, but she did so with a heavy heart.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The rook flew on swiftly beating wings, the urgency of her friend's wishes driving her onward. For three days she had hardly eaten, pausing only once to feed on a rabbit carcass left by a wandering fox. From dawn till dusk she flew, taking advantage of rising thermals to rest her aching wings, avoiding rainstorms and winds that might injure her or drench her feathers.

  The rook tried to veer as a shadow stooped out of the sun, but the talons of a wild hawk struck her in a cloud of black feathers. By the time the hawk settled in a tree to feed, the rook's twitches had ceased.

  In the Queen's palace, a terrible pain struck the rook's bondsman down and robbed him of speech in the moments before he fell into a deep unconsciousness. The next day, the healers who examined him pronounced that his familiar was dead. Chiana ordered another bird sent with the message, this time a falcon. Her heart grew heavier though, for the falcon was a slower bird, and would hardly arrive at Blade's estate before her troops did.

  Blade wiped sweat from his brow and left his perch atop the roof to accept a cup of water from Lilu's young daughter. His smile made the girl blush and look away, which amused him. As she ran off with the empty cup, he returned to his task of sawing through a half burnt beam in one of the castle's many ruined rooms. Fire had ravaged the roof, destroyed part of it and damaged the rest. The burnt beams had to be replaced, and new roofing set atop them, an urgent job to be done before the first snows came.

  Three men had come from the village to help, glad of the money to feed their families now that the gold mine was closed. Blade intended to reopen it before the villagers moved away, or else he would be the only resident of these remote wooded hills. A relaxed, jovial atmosphere pervaded the castle. Lilu kept up a cheerful banter with Jayon and the other men, her smiles and honey cakes lifting their spirits. She called them to lunch, and Blade quit his precarious perch and washed his sooty hands and face in the water bucket provided.

  Settling into the circle of men around the feast Lilu had prepared, he helped himself to some roast pork. The broken-nosed harlot beamed as she watched him in the way a proud mother watches her favourite son. Although almost of an age with Blade, Lilu had settled into a motherly role, chiding him for his lack of appetite and well pleased when it increased.

  The assassin had filled out a little, losing the gaunt look he had acquired in prison, but did not indulge himself too much. He would have enjoyed wine with his meal, but the Contara invaders had emptied the castle's cellar. As yet, he had not had time to restock it, although it was high on his list of priorities. With the help of two women from the village, Lilu prepared wonderful meals for Blade and Jayon.

  Lilu nodded her approval of Blade's appetite and turned to Jayon. "He always was a poor eater, even when I had to nurse him back to health. He turned his nose up at the food I brought, grumbled and complained endlessly. It was only my diligence that saved his life, you know."

  Blade pulled a face. "And you'll never let me forget it, will you?"

  "Why should I? I had to bribe the healer to treat you. He refused to help an assassin at first."

  Jayon grinned. "He's a terrible patient. I know from my own experience of him."

  "Ah, but he wasn't so badly wounded then, only a hole in his lung. When I had him, he had broken bones and bruises all over him, cuts and wounds everywhere. He moaned and groaned something awful, howled when I changed his dressings."

  "What did you expect?" Blade retorted. "I was in agony, and you gave me nothing for the pain. You pushed and pulled me around with a broken leg and ribs."

  "Most men would have gritted their teeth and borne it, but not you. Oh, no, you made enough noise to wake the dead. The neighbours thought I was killing a pig."

  "Now you're exaggerating." Blade shook his head with a smile. "I complained, yes. I saw no point in grinding my teeth to stubs when you could have been a little less rough."

  "Rough? I handled you like a baby!"

  He glanced at Jayon. "Some baby. She cleaned my wounds like she was scrubbing a floor."

  "Now you're exaggerating." Lilu pouted. "I had to keep them clean, or you'd have died."

  The assassin shrugged. "So I don't like pain. Who does?"

  Jayon chuckled. "When I had him, he demanded a bath."

  "Agh, no." Lilu shook her head. "He got no baths with me. He couldn't walk, and there was no bath in my shack. I used to wash him with a sponge." She grinned. "All over."

  Blade studied his cake. "And she takes every opportunity to tell everyone about it."

  "Then he became a lord, and brought me here."

  "She wanted me to marry her." Blade turned to Jayon. "Can you imagine? I had to get rid of her somehow."

  "Well, she did save your life," Jayon pointed out. "You owed her."

  "Don't you start that too."

  "But it's true," Lilu protested. "Without me, you..."

  Blade held up a hand, turning his head to listen as the faint clatter of horses' hooves came from the courtyard. Jayon frowned, looking puzzled as he rose to go and see who it was. Blade set aside his food and went to the window, ignoring Lilu's alarmed look. He scanned the forests around the castle with narrowed eyes, his brows drawing together.

  Jayon returned, looking pale and agitated. "Cotti soldiers! It looks like a whole company! They must be looking for you, Blade. We have got to get out of here."

  Blade continued to peruse the forest. "It's too late for that. There are soldiers in the forest. We're already surrounded."

  "Then what are we going to do?" Jayon demanded.

  "There's no 'we'. They're not after you. Take the others and go."

  "What do they want?" Lilu asked, looking confused.

  Jayon ignored her. "I'm not leaving you."

  Blade turned from the window, his face grim. "They won't let me escape, and you will do me no good here."

  "I'll fight them with you."

  "What do they want?" Lilu demanded again, belligerently.

  Blade glanced at her. "Me."

  "Why?" She rose and came over to gaze up at him.

  The assassin looked away. "To execute me, once they've tortured me. I've assassinated three more Cotti princes."

  "We can hold them off until help arrives," Jayon interjected.

  "What help?" Blade shook his head. "I don't expect any."

  "They couldn't have come so far in Jashimari without being spotted. All we have to do is keep them at bay until help comes."

  Blade opened his mouth to refute this when Lilu cried, "I'll help you! Just give me a sword! I can fight as well as a man."

  He scowled at her. "You're both fools if you stay here. Why die when you don't have to?"

  Jayon bristled. "I've never run from a fight in my life, and I'm not about to start now. You're a Jashimari lord. I cannot abandon you, for my honour's sake." He hesitated. "Nor can I leave a friend to die alone and undefended."

  "Friend!" Blade snorted. "You'll die before I do, anyway." He turned to Lilu. "Surely you have more sense? You've got children, take them and go now, before it's too late."

  "They'll manage without me if they have to, my oldest girl -"

  "Lilu, don't be an idiot! T
ake your children and go." Blade glared at her. "That's an order!"

  She drew herself up. "I don't have to listen to you."

  "And I'm staying too," Jayon added. "You can't send me away."

  Blade groaned. "Why am I cursed to be surrounded by such stubborn, stupid people?"

  "Loyal and brave," Lilu corrected him, scowling.

  Blade glanced around, running a hand over his hair. The villagers had fled, leaving him with four children and the two people who had saved his life. He swung on her. "Stupid, brainless harlot!"

  Closing the gap between them, he gripped her throat, his fingers slipping into well-trained positions. Lilu gasped and went limp. Blade lowered her to the floor, then straightened to meet Jayon's astonished, horrified eyes.

  "You killed her?"

  "No." He shot the young commander a scathing look. "What do you take me for? She'll sleep for many time-glasses. I've repaid my debt to her."

  Blade picked up a length of rope and bound Lilu's hands and feet, then beckoned to her oldest girl, who came forward, her eyes wide. He put a hand on her shoulder.

  "Look after her. Feed her and give her water, but don't let her go until the Cotti soldiers have gone, you understand? Lock this door after we're gone and stay here, quiet as a mouse. Can you do that?"

  The girl glanced her mother. "If you want her to be quiet, you'll have to gag her."

  "Good point." Blade pulled out his handkerchief and gagged Lilu, then carried her to a corner and propped her against the wall.

  Ignoring Jayon, he loped through the castle to the room in which he had slept since his arrival, and the young commander followed. The assassin stripped off his sooty, sweat-stained grey shirt and flung it on the bed, then went to the wardrobe and took out his leather assassin's clothes. When he was dressed, Blade dug in his bag and pulled out a pair of boot-blades, which Jayon eyed with much puzzlement. Strapping on the wrist sheaths, Blade armed them and tucked four more daggers into his belt and two into his boots. As he quit the room and strode towards the main hall, banging echoed through the castle from the main doors.

  "I just fixed those damned doors," Blade growled.

  Jayon glanced around when they entered the main hall, looking irritated. "What are we doing here? We need to find a place more easily defended. A narrow stairway where we can have the higher ground and build a barricade. We have no chance here. We'll be surrounded."

  Blade bent to strap on the deadly footgear. "Then go, find such a place to make your stand. I'm not a soldier, and there's no point in trying to hold them off. We can expect no reinforcements and no reprieve. We can only fight as long as our strength holds out, and that won't be long against so many. I intend to take as many of the bastards with me as I can, and for that I need space."

  "You can't just accept this. We can still hide."

  "They'll find us and drag us out like rats. They must know I'm here. Do you think they'll leave without finding me? You go, there's no need for you to die as well."

  Jayon's face twisted. "I will not leave you, damn it!"

  "You truly want to help me?" Blade walked closer, reaching for Jayon's shoulder, but the young commander stepped back.

  "You're not doing that trick to me."

  Blade smiled, nodding, then pulled a dagger from his belt and pressed it into Jayon's hand. "If you want to help me, then kill me now." He guided the point of the dagger to his chest and positioned it over his heart. "There, the perfect spot. Just push. I haven't the strength to do it. I'm a coward, always have been -"

  "No!" Jayon wrenched his hand free, and the dagger fell with a clatter. "How can you ask me to do such a thing? I will not! I cannot!"

  "You can." Blade retrieved the dagger. "End it for me, before the Cotti do. It'll be a quick, merciful death instead of a torturous one."

  "No!" Jayon backed away, glaring at Blade with bright eyes. "I can't kill you. You're my friend!"

  "I'm an assassin," Blade said. "I would have killed your father, had I been paid to, with no more feeling than I had for any of the others. I've killed so many I've lost count." He tugged open his collar. "I'm a cold-blooded killer, remember? I would kill you without a second thought. Now is your chance to avenge your father, kill an assassin."

  "No! I don't care what you've done or what you could do. I'm not going to murder you." He shook his head, his face filled with despair. "Even if you had killed my father, I couldn't kill you."

  "Do you know what they'll do to me if they take me alive?" Blade demanded. "And believe me, they will try. They want to torture me. They want the name of my client, the one who ordered the deaths of the Cotti princes."

  "Queen Minna-Satu is dead. What does it matter?"

  The assassin hissed, frowning. "Do you want to see me tortured? Do you know how the Cotti torture prisoners? Their most popular method is impalement."

  Jayon looked anguished. "I cannot do it. Don't ask me, please!"

  "You would be doing me a great service, one that only a friend could do. I'm asking you as a friend."

  The crash of splintering wood echoed through the castle, followed by shouts and pounding feet, mixed with the jingle of armour. Jayon's eyes locked with the assassin's icy gaze. "Don't call upon our friendship now, when you scorned it before. Don't defile it by asking me to do such a thing in its name."

  Blade looked away, remaining silent for several moments while he wrestled with himself. "No, you're right, it's too much to ask. I must meet my fate. I suppose it cannot be avoided. I can't ask you to do what I have not the courage to do myself."

  Jayon gripped his arm. "If we run, we might still elude them."

  Blade jerked free. "Not me. The only way out now is through the kitchens, and I'm certain they'll be waiting there. Even if we got past them, how far do you think we would get on foot, surrounded by mounted soldiers? You go, they will let you." The assassin turned to face the door as the clatter of running feet drew closer. "Go, save yourself. You can do nothing for me now."

  The young commander bowed his head, staring at the floor. When he looked up, his expression was grim, as if he had finally accepted Blade's decision. "If you won't flee, then neither will I. It will be an honour to die at your side, Lord Conash."

  Blade looked away. "Bloody idiot."

  A Cotti soldier appeared in the doorway and stepped into the room. Jayon drew his sword with a hiss of steel. Blade stood with his hands at his sides while more soldiers entered on the heels of the first. They stayed near the wall, well out of reach of the two Jashimari. When more than a dozen men had entered the room, a tall, gold-armoured man, resplendent in a tunic of pale blue and silver, strode in. He stopped just within the portal and eyed the assassin, removing his plumed helmet.

  Blade had seen enough of Kerrion's brothers to know that he faced another of them, an older one, only a little younger than the King. This one bore a pronounced likeness to Shandor in his size and blunt, brutish features. Pale hair framed his coarse visage, and a short beard of a darker hue hid his chin. Dark brown eyes raked Blade from under blond brows. His animal kin, Blade recognised at a glance, was the same as his father's, the great brown bear. Like it, he would be stubborn, pugnacious and somewhat short-sighted.

  "Prince Armin," Blade guessed.

  "You are well informed, assassin." Armin stepped closer, eyeing the daggers in Blade's belt. "And well-armed, I see. Perhaps we can dispense with the ugliness and settle this in a gentlemanly manner."

  "How so?"

  Armin glanced back at several robed, skull-capped men who had entered behind him. "These men are judges and advisors. All I want from you is the name of the man who hired you to kill my brothers. Speak it before us, and you may go free."

  "Really." Blade smiled. "You think me such a fool. Even if I was to tell you who hired me, you cannot let me live. My execution for your brothers' deaths is sanctioned by the King himself, is it not?"

  "It is, but we could overlook that. Perhaps we could offer you a pardon in return for your co-opera
tion, just as you received when you spoke at Kerrion's trial." He glanced at the judges, who nodded. "There, you see? Speak his name and you will both go free."

  "I wish I could, but this discussion is pointless. I was ordered to speak at Kerrion's trial by the Queen, who was then my employer. I have no such instructions now."

  Armin stepped nearer. "I know it was Kerrion who ordered my brothers' deaths, you have only to confirm it."

  "Was it?" Blade's smile broadened. "A pleasant thought, I must say. Certainly, I could tell you that it was Kerrion, but I could be lying. How would you know if I was telling the truth? Perhaps Queen Minna-Satu ordered their deaths before her own."

  "The woman called Minna-Satu is still alive, as you well know."

  Jayon gasped, glancing at Blade, who shrugged. "So perhaps it was one of your other brothers. They are all quite murderous, even the youngsters."

  "It was Kerrion. Tell the truth, assassin."

  "Once armed with this information, you will overthrow him and take the throne. A cunning plot, much like Lerton's. I cannot tell you who did order your brothers' deaths, but I can tell you it was not Kerrion."

  "You lie!" Armin stepped closer again, and Blade's hand sought the hilt of a dagger. The Prince noted the movement and retreated. "No one but Kerrion has reason to kill my brothers."

  "They are his brothers too. Why would he wish them dead?"

  "They were a threat to him."

  Blade shook his head. "He is the King."

  "He has taken a Jashimari whore to be his wife. His sons will be half breeds; the Cotti will not stand for it."

  "His daughter will rule Jashimari."

  "Which we could have conquered, if not for the scheming of your foul Queen. She saved her people from slavery, but Kerrion insults his ancestors with his foolish liaison."