by Kendal Davis
Now everybody really was looking at me oddly.
I pressed on, my hostility to the Queen fueling my defiance. “I mean, the Oceanic Arts people create their works for display, right? The Weatherbringers develop new techniques for that, plus I have reason to think they had a club banquet at the end of last term. Other groups do stuff.”
Even Rook and Owain looked as if they couldn’t quite place the range of fluctuating emotions that were traveling from me to them along our bonds. To be honest, I wasn’t sure that I could, myself.
All I knew was that it was time for a change. A new strategy.
“So let’s do it,” I said, loud and clear. “Let’s get out there and assassinate people.”
“What?” Evana gasped.
Lily settled herself in her seat with a little smile. “That’s what I’ve been thinking, too. It is an honor to do this work for the Queen, is it not?” She turned the force of her charm on the beautiful woman who sat at the head of the table, but she received no response.
The Queen was watching me. For a moment, I thought I detected surprise, but then it flickered away. I had to know if she had herded me to this moment, or if I was succeeding in finally doing something that wasn’t what she expected.
I pushed it a little farther.
With my feet still on the table, my chin high, I asked them all one question. My voice rang out in the closed room. “When do we finally get to start killing mortals?”
6
Owain
I opened my eyes wider at Ciara as she issued her challenge. Sure, I should have been able to sit there, stone-faced, never letting my opinions become visible. But I just didn’t have that ability.
Queen Hellebore did. I could sense Ciara’s question through our bond. My pink haired lover was trying to find out if she could surprise the Queen. Was it possible that all our movements were pre-planned for us? Did the woman who ruled all the fae control us, after all? It was not a great difference to parse, between controlling us, and merely knowing exactly what we were going to do.
For eternal beings, there was time and time enough. Knowing what was going to happen must be excruciatingly boring.
In the silence that hung in the room after Ciara had spoken, I felt her relax infinitesimally. She had come to the conclusion that Hellebore could not predict everything about her. For Ciara, that was of the utmost importance, as it was one of her few strengths that she’d brought with her from the mortal realm.
The element of surprise still dwelt within her.
“You can’t be serious,” I heard myself say gently to her. I wanted to hold her to me, but she sat in her own space entirely.
“Don’t you think I am?” She spoke with a friendly lilt, but there was also steel in her tone that was new to me. “As Lily is always saying, mortals have such a short life span that it can hardly matter if we snuff a few out a bit early.”
“That is what I’ve always said,” nodded Lily with a sniff of satisfaction. “I did not know that you had the sense to listen to me, Ciara.”
The Queen had masked any surprise she allowed to show when Ciara changed courses. Now, she looked just as ruthlessly powerful as she always had. What could have made me think in my younger days that she was a benevolent ruler? Now that she was before me, here in person, she was heartless in her purpose.
She still wanted to destroy Ciara. But something about this new idea titillated her.
Hellebore threw back her head and laughed. “You have managed to surprise me, mortal girl, and for that I thank you. Things had grown very dull for me.”
Landon ventured to speak, from his place next to Professor Thorn. “Perhaps they were dull because I was gone, my lady.” True to form, he would curry as much favor as he could with her now. Once it had become clear that she was still calling all the shots at Fae Academy, he’d had no other choice.
She knew it too, and she declined to needle him as she might have. With a supercilious nod to the Headmaster, she spoke, but her eyes remained fastened on Ciara. “It was rather restful, actually, Landon. Don’t you admire how well I look?”
Ciara pulled her feet down now, with a crashing sound. She was going to be as disruptive as she could. I prayed to myself that that was all this was. She wanted to throw Hellebore off balance, because there was another plan. I couldn’t countenance the idea that she really planned to act as an Assassin.
“We are yours, Hellebore,” she said without the least bit of deference. “All of us in this room bear the mark of allegiance to you.” She turned up her own wrist, showing us that her statement was true. Only another Assassin could see it, so it offered no breach of security for us. The four-petaled flower looked like a tattoo on her pale skin, but no color filled the lines. It was made of the Queen’s magic.
Hellebore smiled widely. “And you are planning to do my bidding? Until now, I have had only Landon and Thorn working my will in the mortal realm. Landon advised me to wait until you were ready to take up this work. For once, the fool of a man was right.”
At the Queen’s words, the Headmaster’s lips thinned, but he made no other sign of hearing.
Ciara was flushed now, as she stood. Her hands cradled a ball of light, brightening with every breath she took. “You all know that I’m the only one in any world who can balance all four powers like this. What do you think I could do with this magic against the mortals?”
Evana whispered, her hands flat on the table with defeat. “They are your people, Ciara.”
“I think I might just be one of the fae now,” Ciara said simply. “I would rather get on with things than dance around this any longer. Just point me towards the action, and we’ll see who comes out alive.”
I cleared my throat, wishing we could all go back to before the Queen’s arrival. There had to be something I’d missed that allowed things to fall apart so quickly. What should we have done differently?
“We should give Ciara more time to think about this course of action,” I said flatly.
The Queen licked her soft, perfectly shaped lips. She was a vision of beauty now, but all I could see in her was the ancient crone who had threatened Ciara with annihilation as a way of welcoming her to the land of the fae. “She doesn’t need to think anymore, does she? You are all sworn already to serve me by taking life in the mortal world. As the girl says, it is time to stop dancing around that.”
He’d remained silent until now, but Professor Thorn now turned to her with a deference that confused me. We’d always suspected that he was an Eternal Assassin, but he’d refused to confirm it. Was he now to show himself as the Queen’s true follower in every way?
“So it is time,” he said calmly. “I shall begin the extra training. All of those who are here, with some other students added in for subterfuge.”
Ciara shook her head. “I’m done with hiding. I’d be happy to announce to the world that I’m an assassin. Right now. Let’s do that.”
Rook met my eyes as we both wondered if she’d become unhinged.
Evana, too, shifted in her seat. Had the stress of being in our world finally broken something in Ciara?
Thorn shook his head slowly at her insistence. “It doesn’t matter what you think in this regard. The Eternal Assassins are, above all things, a secret organization. With most groups, if you jeopardize that secrecy, you are expelled from school.”
Landon rubbed his chin with a relaxed hand as he rested his elbow on the table. “We’ve all seen that. There was that boy who shouted out what his parchment invitation said. Seems like yesterday.”
Evana made a face. “I knew him. Or his family, at least. He didn’t deserve to just be teleported away like that.” Then, with a stubbornness that we all liked about her, she added, under her breath: “You might think it was recent because you’ve been in magical stasis, but that was ages ago.”
Landon’s jaw tightened at her reminder that Ciara had overpowered him, but he stayed quiet.
Professor Thorn lifted a finger. “I wasn’t f
inished. If one speaks out about the Eternal Assassins, one is removed from life entirely.”
Ciara stuck her nose in the air. “And I know you mean that to refer to me alone, as the rest of you cannot die.”
“It’s more than that,” Hellebore said. “The magic in this is so strong that even a fae who betrays it will suffer consequences. For our people, there is another dimension to which some choose to retire. In a case like this, it would not be by choice. One would be gone from here forever.”
Ciara spoke so quietly that we all leaned toward her to hear. “Retirement might be a good option for you right now.”
Thorn stood, looking more confident than I’d ever seen him. “Then we are finished here. I will assemble the students needed, and I will prepare them for their work.” He looked different this term than he had before. More confident, better muscled, just hotter… That was not my own thought. I was catching emotions from Ciara, which made me want to tickle her until she stopped thinking of men beyond her own harem.
At least she still had a sense of humor, no matter what strangeness she was embroiled in right now.
Hellebore pretended not to notice Thorn’s rudeness in calling for dismissal of the meeting. “When I was a girl, I heard stories of the way they used to run combat classes at Fae Academy.” Her voice carried a twinkle of a joke.
Thorn grinned at the Queen, now totally at ease. He’d grown more comfortable with her, in direct contrast to Landon’s trajectory. “Ah, yes, I have read of this as well. The fae used to participate in combat instruction as a spiritual exercise. For that reason, it was crucial that they work without a stitch of clothing. Nothing but naked bodies gripping each other in the fresh air.”
“Nobody believes those old legends,” Lily pronounced. I saw her eyes were on Thorn, lingering on his athletic, broad shoulders and the way his arms looked strong enough to toss boulders.
The Queen was chortling, though. “I do. And perhaps I would like to join, if the combat class was arranged along those lines.”
I almost choked, for I still saw her as she’d appeared the last time we’d met. Now, though, she was just as young and supple as any eternal fae woman.
Ciara had remained standing at her seat, her pale hands cradling the carved back of her chair. She, too, looked ready to leave. But she was still bound by the magical web that encased the organization. We’d accepted membership, although Ciara had done so without knowing what it entailed.
None of us could leave until the Queen dismissed us.
Queen Hellebore, still chuckling, nodded at each of us in turn. “Thorn, so eager to get started. I like that. The rest of you, carry on.” She did not issue a special message to her former lover, Landon. She had a final pronouncement for Ciara, though.
“Girl, you will continue to test your powers, and I like that. I like you, my Slayer. You are the most powerful of my minions, so I have named you Slayer among them, as is your right.” She began to dissolve into transparency, as she teleported away from the meeting room.
As she vanished, she intoned her final words for Ciara. “You will think you can escape, but you cannot. I will devour you, and your strength will be mine.”
7
Ciara
The hatred that coursed through me when I thought of the Queen was so fierce that it did not lessen with the passage of time. After our meeting in the cellar room, days passed with no mention from the administration about new classes opening up, or a schedule change for me or my friends. But I knew it was still in the works. Since that night, when we had all wearily transported ourselves to bed for much-earned rest, I had gone over every word in my mind.
She and I were playing a dangerous game of chicken, and I was determined not to break first.
The others had asked me, of course, whether I truly meant what I said. Was I committed to this new course of acting as an Assassin for real in the mortal world?
It made my heart race when I confronted that reality in my own mind. I wasn’t sure who I’d become, but I was pretty sure that I was ready to do this.
As we filed out of breakfast, Evana poked me with her elbow. “What do you think about Professor Thorn this year?”
I sighed. “I was wondering when you were going to ask me that. I noticed it that evening, just like you.”
“Well, he looks rejuvenated, doesn’t he?” Evana and I slowed our pace, as the students passing out of the massive doors to the Great Hall were clumped together in surprising congestion. “What’s happening up here?”
“It shouldn’t be possible for him to look young or old. He’s a fae, just like you. Have you ever met anybody who changed like that?” I was tempted to use my powers to try to see past the crowd, but that sort of showboating didn’t make friends at the Academy.
Oh, what the hell. I had friends.
But before I could levitate to get a better look, Evana figured it out. “Look at that,” she murmured. “It’s the Headmaster giving out new course schedules.”
“Not to everybody, though,” I said. “It looks like Thorn is the topic on everybody’s mind this morning.” As we drew closer to where the Headmaster stood in the doorway, the name of our combat instructor was on the lips of half the students.
Headmaster Landon nodded impersonally when Evana and I reached him. “The two of you are on my list for some alterations to your course of study.”
“That sounds ominous,” I joked, looking him in the eye. I was in no mood to treat him deferentially.
Although the others students within earshot tensed at the way I talked to the Head, he ignored it. Good. He knew his limits, and he was aware that I could put him right back in the basement anytime I chose.
Landon passed us each a paper, then motioned us to continue.
“That was weird,” said Evana. “You’d think he’d make an announcement about this.”
“He doesn’t want the whole school involved,” said Rook helpfully, as we got to him. He and Owain had pressed through the crown before us, but waited in the hallway. “This should look as normal as possible.”
“Even though it’s not,” continued Owain. “Just when we were getting settled into our course load, now it looks like most of what we’ll be studying is fighting.” He waved his own schedule at us, looking frustrated.
“It means I don’t have to go to my ‘Metrics of Combustion II’ class!” Rook’s eyes were eager. “Check it out. On my new schedule, there’s none of that. No core classes by affinity, no boring academic lectures on the math of spells.”
Evana giggled at Owain’s long face. “Come on, let’s walk further along, so nobody will hear us.” As we strolled away from the Great Hall, the groups of students discussing their new schedules seemed to thin. I could see Landon’s point. Only third-years were in on this, gauging by the conversations I could overhear. He was going to try to train us with as few questions asked by the rest of the school as possible.
“All we need to do is walk down to the gym,” I observed as I looked at my own sheet of paper. “That seems to be where most of my days are going to be spent.”
Owain frowned. “There’s no note or explanation or anything. Is it temporary? How will we graduate if we don’t take the courses we need?”
I felt unusually grim. “I’m not sure it matters. First, we need to deal with the Queen. She’s made the rules, just like always.”
Owain shook his head, reaching for my free hand. “That’s not what is happening. This is you making the rules now. I don’t understand what you’re planning, but you’re the one that brought about this change.”
His words were oddly cheering. I was still a student here who had to dance to the tune of the fae, but I had made a difference. I’d pushed the Queen to the edge, and I wasn’t going to back down.
An icy voice cut through the hallway, just before we turned a corner.
It was Lily, headed to the gym as well. “Looks like that course change came through, right Ciara?” She was full of cool confidence as always. I f
ound myself remembering how enthusiastic she’d been about the Eternal Assassins when I first met her on the sky train to school. I’d thought it was garden-variety snobbishness. This was the most exclusive club. There were years in which nobody was inducted into it at all. I realized that I’d misunderstood Lily’s reverence, her hope for being tapped as an Assassin.
“You’ve been looking forward to this, haven’t you?” I made my way to her.
“As have you,” Lily affirmed. “It is odd, isn’t it? I’m one of the fae who thinks that mortals are a waste of space. And you are one, of course.” Her wide smile was dangerous. “And here we are, about to make it our life’s mission to kill them together.”
Owain made a gesture against his mouth. “Less of that talk in public, Lily. If you look at your schedule, you’ll see that these combat courses are all open to any third-year here.” As he said it, several students who I knew a little bit came around the corner and entered the school gymnasium. I knew well that they were not sworn as we were.
We stepped inside the doors ourselves, coming face to face with Professor Thorn. He was, just as I’d noticed on our first night back, sexier than ever. It was hard to pinpoint what was different, but Evana had noticed it as well. He was tall and well-built, with broad shoulders. He did not speak, but his eyes sparkled with the secret of knowing why we were there.
“Good morning, third-years,” he called out as the steady trickle of students came to a halt and the gym filled with the class. “Thank you for changing your plans for the day and coming to my gym.”
One lanky, blond-haired man raised his hand. “I think there’s been some mistake. I’m supposed to be in ‘Comparison of Water and Air Currents in Spells’ right now. Can I go check in the office and see if something’s gone wrong?”
Professor Thorn looked bored. “There’s no mistake. Don’t be silly. Headmaster Landon and I have made these alterations to your schedules, because they are in your best interest.”
