Weapon of Pain (Weapon of Flesh Series Book 5)

by Chris A. Jackson

  “I’m interested in them because Hoseph is using them for some plot.” She cocked an eyebrow. “Do you know what that plot entails?”

  The Master Hunter shrugged. “It’s not hard to figure out. Duke Tessifus is next in line for the throne. If the guild has his kids, the guild controls the emperor.”

  “Just as I suspected.” Mya sipped her rum with a smile. It all fit perfectly. “So they still plan to assassinate the current emperor?”

  “Yes, but I don’t’ know how.” Embree narrowed his eyes at her. “So, you weren’t sure what they were planning, but you took the boy just to screw up Hoseph’s plans?”

  “That’s exactly correct.” Mya hardened her tone a trifle. “Hoseph wants to control the guild from behind the scenes. I won’t have that. I want to keep the guild intact and lead us in a direction that will be good for everyone. Hoseph only wants to regain the power he lost when the Grandmaster died. His plot depends on these kids. If I take them away, Kittal and Lakshmi will come over to my side.”

  “Not as long as he holds the guildmaster’s ring.”

  “Then we’ll kill him and take it back. Either way, if Hoseph loses, I win.”

  Embree seemed to consider for a moment, then nodded. “Lakshmi’s made it clear that Hoseph doesn’t control the guild, but that he is important to her picture of the guild’s future. Without him, that future crumbles. She and Kittal won’t have any choice but to agree to your terms. What do you need from me to make this work?”

  “The locations of Lakshmi and Kittal’s new headquarters. My rescuing the first Tessifus boy will leave her cautious about the remaining two. My guess is that she’ll keep them close by and under heavy guard, which probably means at her headquarters. Maybe one at Kitall’s to keep them separated. What do you think?”

  Embree assumed a thoughtful look, most of his nervousness gone. “She’ll definitely keep them separated. When we last met at Lakshmi’s headquarters, Kittal brought her a couple of small boxes, vials of opium. They might be drugging the boys to keep them quiet.”

  That supposition certainly meshed with Mya’s observations of the groggy Wexford. “And where are their headquarters?”

  “Lakshmi’s is behind a soap shop in the Heights on Fetterly Avenue. Kittal’s set up in the basement of a glassblower’s workshop on Flatiron Street where it breaches the wall between Midtown and the Wharf District.”

  “Do you know where else Lakshmi or Kittal’s people hole up?”

  “A few, but not all of them, just like they don’t know all of mine.”

  “Before we make a move, I’ll want locations for as many of their hideouts as you can give me. We can’t hit them all simultaneously, but we can have people watching to see how they react. Have you moved your headquarters yet?”

  “No. I wanted your answer first. I don’t want my people to suffer for my miscalculation if you…don’t want us.”

  Mya considered the meeting. Embree seemed to be telling her the truth, as far as she could tell. If only I could wave a feather like Keyfur to discern the truth… He also seemed to care for his people. She liked that. Mya stood and extended a hand. “We want you. Welcome aboard.”

  The relief on the Master Hunter’s face shone clearly as he shook her hand. “Thank you, Grandmaster.”

  Mya held his hand, squeezed it just hard enough to let him know her strength. No sense in being too trusting. “I don’t have to tell you what will happen to you if this turns out to be a trap, do I?” She released her grip and sat back down.

  “No, you don’t.” Embree flexed his hand.

  The tension in the room eased. Clemson and Noncey came around and perched on the corners of the desk, ready to participate in the planning.

  “So, how soon can you be ready to move your headquarters?”

  Embree frowned, obviously considering all the details. “Tomorrow maybe, but the next day would be better. Getting ready to move is easy, doing it without anyone noticing will be harder. If they catch wind that something’s up, I’ll be floating face down in the harbor.”

  “Right. Have people ready to move your headquarters when we start the operation. So, now, what time of day do we do this?”

  “I say during the day, like the last time.” Noncey looked from face to face. “The shops will be open, so it won’t be suspicious for people to be entering either business.”

  “Maybe, but after the perfumery attack, Lakshmi’s likely to be ready any time of day, and I don’t want to involve a bunch of innocent bystanders.” Mya considered how to change their tactics. “Early morning, I think, when the night shift is tired and thinks everything’s gone quiet. Say…an hour before dawn, day after tomorrow.”

  Embree nodded. “I can do that.”

  “We’ll need some reconnaissance.”

  Embree grinned. “I can give you sketches of the buildings, the number of guards, where they’re posted, and a bit on the fortifications and surprises they have.”

  Every head turned toward him with expressions ranging from skeptical to curious.

  Mya raised an eyebrow. “You picked all that up?”

  “I’m a Hunter, Grandmaster. It’s my job to observe.”

  Mya returned his grin. This just might work.

  Dee hunched with Mya in the shadows of a doorway, scanning the street in front of the soap shop.

  All clear…so far.

  Mya tapped his arm and pointed up. Scanning the rooftops across the way, he caught a flicker of motion. Blades were supposed to be taking out the watchers Embree had told them about.

  But if this is a setup… He dismissed the thought. He had to trust Mya’s assessment of the Master Hunter. Embree’s offer to accompany them had bolstered Dee’s confidence, but Mya had insisted that the Hunters stay out of this. They had enough to do moving their headquarters, and she’d gotten reconnaissance from Embree himself.

  “That’s it,” Mya whispered, tugging his sleeve. “We’re on.”

  “Are you sure you want me to come with you?”

  “Who better to watch my ass?” She grinned and slipped away.

  “And it’s such a nice ass, too…” Dee drew his crossbows and followed.

  Flicking from shadow to shadow, they stole down the street. Halfway to the shop they were joined by another shadow, a Blade particularly skilled at picking locks. Across town, a similar group would be advancing on Kittal’s headquarters on Flatiron Street.

  When they reached the shop’s front door, Mya and Dee put their backs to the wall to either side while the Blade got her tools ready. Drapes were drawn over barred windows, and no light leaked from around the edges, but that didn’t mean it was safe. Embree had told them there were always two guards in the shop at night, and perhaps trip wires on the front door.

  Here’s where things get dicey…

  While the Blade knelt to examine the door’s lock, Mya leaned near the window to listen for any hint that they’d been detected. Dee stood ready, watching for any trouble. He knew that Enforcers and Blades lurked in the shadows, but couldn’t see any. All was still.

  The Blade pulled a thin steel feeler tool from a pocket and slipped it under the door. She slid it slowly and gently from left to right, then up the latch side, stopping about three inches up.

  “One wire,” she whispered, withdrawing the feeler, then reinserting it above the spot. She paused again at the latch, then again halfway across the top of the door. “Two.”

  She finished the circumference and put the feeler tool away. Pulling out two thin picks, she slid them into the lock and teased the tumblers, a look of intense concentration wrinkling her brow. The faintest of clicks brought a smile to her face and she nodded. She rotated the picks until the bolt released and the door moved minutely.

  Dee licked the sweat from his upper lip and tensed as Mya and the Blade traded places. If Kittal had lent his expertise to Lakshmi’s security measures, pulling either of those two wires could release all Nine Hells. If that happened, Mya would be far more likely to
survive or deal with whatever mayhem ensued.

  Mya wrapped the fingers of one hand around the latch, drew a thin pair of snippers with the other, and gingerly pushed the door open the tiniest crack. Slipping the snippers through, she clipped the bottom wire.

  Twang!

  “What the—” muttered a startled voice inside the shop.

  Mya moved like lighting, reaching up to clip the top wire, then bursting into the shop. Dee pivoted into the doorway and raised his weapons, flinching as a crossbow bolt embedded itself in the doorjamb. Across the room, Mya had already knocked one Inquisitor flat with the pommel of her dagger. The other was reaching for a pull rope. Dee took aim, but motion above his head caught his attention. A melon-sized glass sphere tumbled from a niche above the door.

  “Shit!” Dropping his crossbows, Dee reached for the orb. Slick and surprisingly heavy, it slipped from his grasp. Desperately, he stuck out a foot to break its fall. The sphere didn’t rupture, but rolled across the floor to shatter against the far wall. Liquid spattered the nearby shelves, and smoke billowed as wood and the carefully stacked soaps smoldered and blackened.

  A crash drew his attention from the hissing acid. Mya’s kick had sent the other Inquisitor slamming into the wall, but not before his fingers closed around the pull rope.

  An alarm bell rang deeper inside the building.

  “Damn!” Mya noticed the mess and cringed. “What the— Never mind that! Come on!”

  Dee snatched up his crossbows hurried across the shop to take up position beside Mya. Blades and Enforcers flooded through the front door. Jolee and another burly Enforcer picked up a heavy table laden with soaps and bath oils, hefting it like a battering ram. At the drop of Mya’s hand, they slammed it into the inner door.

  Dee cringed. Gods, I hope that one’s not wired.

  Wood splintered under the onslaught, but held, and nothing exploded. Tossing the table aside, Jolee kicked the door hard, and it came off the hinges. Then she staggered back, a crossbow bolt sticking out of her upper chest.

  In the horrified moment that Dee stared at Jolee, Mya took off down the hallway. The gauntlet, Embree had called it, for doors lined the walls on both sides, and it was a safe bet the rooms behind them didn’t hold just boxes of soap. Dee raced after Mya.

  At the far door—Lakshmi’s office—stood two assassins. One was already falling to the floor with one of Mya’s daggers in his thigh. The other fired a crossbow at the charging Grandmaster, but Mya batted the bolt out of the air. Dee raised a crossbow to take aim, but Mya was faster. Before he could pull the trigger, the Inquisitor went down, clutching his crotch from Mya’s kick.

  Can’t be that easy, Dee thought.

  As if to confirm his dread, three of the six doors along the hallway opened, and Dee had no shortage of targets. Two assassins fell unconscious with Dee’s bolts in their flesh, but a half dozen more took their places…between him and Mya.

  Dee flattened himself against a wall to make room for the Enforcers and Blades charging into the hallway. To his surprise, Jolee led the onslaught despite a bloody crossbow bolt sticking out of her shoulder. She and her equally huge partner wielded cudgels the size of small trees, smashing people aside with gleeful abandon. Reloading quickly, Dee dropped two more assassins, then struggled to fight his way through to Mya.

  If she isn’t dead already…

  But the Inquisitors apparently considered two massive Enforcers with clubs and Blades with crossbows and daggers a greater threat than a single woman, because they paid no attention to Mya. Accordingly, Mya paid no attention to them. Instead, she attacked the door to Lakshmi’s office, but she didn’t appear to be having much luck. The heavily reinforced oak held its own under her frantic onslaught, already spattered with blood from her fists.

  “Dear Gods of Light, is the woman trying to kill herself?”

  A high-pitched tone reverberated within Hoseph’s mind, rousing him from a deep sleep. He blinked in the darkness, momentarily disoriented and unsure of the time. Instinct told him it was still night. But that sound… He looked around for the source in the glow of Demia’s summoned magic, then realized it was coming from inside his head.

  The chime I gave to Lakshmi!

  He lurched up from his blankets, worry banishing the last vestiges of sleep. Flipping his talisman into his hand, he whispered, “Shahallariva,” and Demia’s power dissolved his flesh to mist.

  Even in the Sphere of Shadow, the tone resounded in his mind like a beacon. That was the true value of the chime; he needn’t be familiar with the location to arrive at the summoner’s side. Bracing himself for the pain he knew would come, he concentrated on the source of the tone and invoked the talisman again.

  Pain pierced him like a knife thrust between his eyes. Hoseph gritted his teeth and blinked, swallowing the nausea that threatened to empty his stomach. Through a fog of agony, he saw flickering light, heard curses, shouting, and a loud bell.

  “Hoseph!” Lakshmi’s voice cut through the haze, and his surroundings resolved into the opulent confines of her office. The Master Inquisitor stood in an uncharacteristic state of dishevelment, her hair mussed, a red silk robe hastily tied over bright yellow night clothes. She twitched her head in a quick, birdlike gesture, as if wincing in pain. “We’re in trouble.”

  A heavy impact punctuated the alarm bell. Hoseph realized there were others in the room. Four of them were pressing a heavy table against the door. It rattled with another impact, and the Inquisitors looked to their master with panic in their eyes.

  Lakshmi ignored them as she clutched Hoseph’s sleeve. “We’re under attack and all the exits are blocked. You need to get me out of here!”

  Hoseph’s thoughts cleared as if he’d been dashed with cold water. It could only be Mya, and she could only be here for one reason. “Mya’s come for the boys. You’re keeping them here, aren’t you?”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “Only one, the eldest, but he doesn’t matter. Now get me out of here!”

  “He does matter!” The agony in his head pounded in time with the clanging alarm bell. He was in no mood for Lakshmi’s defiance. “Take me to him or I’ll leave you here for Mya to dismember.”

  “You wouldn’t.” Lakshmi’s eyes flashed with trepidation before she clenched her jaw stubbornly. “Besides, she wouldn’t waste my talents the way you wasted Twist’s.”

  Hoseph smiled grimly. “Would you bet your life on that?” He folded his arms, fingering the talisman. “Take me to the boy and I’ll take you both to safety.”

  Lakshmi glared, but another sharp thump against the office door galvanized her into action. She pointed a bony finger at an Inquisitor. “Sarin! Hold that door. You’ve got to give us at least a few moments to get out of here. Once we’re gone, surrender. Mya won’t slaughter guild members if she doesn’t have to.” She sneered at Hoseph. “She’s not stupid.”

  “Yes, Mistress!” The assassins gathered more furniture, wedging it into place as another strike shivered the door in its frame.

  Lakshmi turned to a broad credenza and pressed three ornate bits of filigree in sequence, her long fingernails clicking against the polished wood. The massive piece of furniture slid silently aside, exposing a recess in the wall. Reaching inside, she flipped something, then pushed. A section of the wall swung up and inward to reveal a secret passage with stairs leading down into the dark.

  Something crashed against the outer door again, and this time wood splintered.

  A fist had punched through both the door and table, slim and bloody, a woman’s hand. Mya! Unfortunately, one of the Inquisitors holding the table had been in the fist’s path. The man flew back to land on the floor, clutching his chest.

  A quick-thinking assassin stabbed a dagger through the hand, but it just twisted, grasped the assassin’s wrist, and yanked. The man was jerked forward, his arm disappearing through the hole until his face smashed into the wood. His surprised cry devolved into a scream, then he was flung back, his arm twisted at an imp
ossible angle.

  “Good Gods of Light!” Lakshmi gasped.

  Hoseph knew better than to think that a mere stab wound in the hand would stop Mya. The Grandmaster had buried a dagger in her stomach and a blademaster had skewered her with a sword, yet still she had fought on. He stared at the bloody hand scrabbling through the hole in the door, trying to find the latch. If I can just get hold of her for a moment, I can send her soul to Demia, and my troubles will be over. He took a step toward the door, but stumbled as fingers like talons grasped his robes and yanked him back.

  “Don’t be a fool!” Lakshmi hissed. “We’ve got to get out of here!”

  The hand disappeared back through the door, his opportunity lost. Another impact splintered the door further, and the table flew back, landing atop the two assassins still struggling to keep it in place.

  “Justi, Verna, seal this behind us! Lock it from the inside!” Lakshmi hurried into the secret passage, light blossoming around her as she descended the stair.

  The door splintered under another impact.

  With a surge of panic, Hoseph followed her down, the two assassins crowding in behind to seal the portal. Mya might spare the assassins who opposed her, but he held no illusions of mercy for himself if he was still here when she broke through.

  Bones in Mya’s shoulder crunched as she rammed into Lakshmi’s office door once again. It will heal, she reminded herself. Her shattered fists and the stab wound were already healed. Though she felt no pain, it still nauseated her to think too closely about the damage she was inflicting on her body. The bones knitted as she switched tactics and slammed a kick into the door near the latch.

  Finally, the door gave way completely. Charging through, she assessed the situation at a glance. Four assassins littered the floor, a couple beneath a broken table, two more groaning or unconscious. None of them were Lakshmi. Movement caught her eye, and she whipped around to see a heavy credenza sliding unaided along the wall. She launched herself at it, gripping the edge with bloody fingers to wrench it aside.