Villain's Assistant

by Carley Hibbert

  She smiled up at Denny, but he was unable to return it. His arms shook as he helped her back to the well to sit down. They leaned against each other while Benjamin guarded. He flicked a glance at her and Denny from time to time. Denny had slid his hand into hers and set it in his lap, cradling her hand between both of his. Benjamin raised his eyebrows at this and decided to join the Lieutenant and Odie.

  Denny was absentmindedly tracing the tendons in Rebecca’s wrist. She looked up to see the Lieutenant’s face, dark with rage, above her. Odie followed, tapping the flat side of his sword against his shoulder as he studied the dirt. Denny stood up to meet the Lieutenant. Benjamin arrived last, casting weary glances behind him.

  “Fill up those waterskins, and let’s get out of here before anyone comes looking for that failed assassin.” The Lieutenant clenched his jaw as he cleaned his bloody sword on a tattered rag that lay in the back of the cart. “Odie, pack the horse.”

  Rebecca glanced down at her empty hands in her lap to make sure they were still there. The Lieutenant scrutinized Rebecca, making sure she was alive and well. She wondered if he was thinking of his sister.

  “I’m fine.” Rebecca stood up, tilting her head back. “Just a little shaky.”

  The Lieutenant strode forward and pulled her into his arms. He smelled of hot leather and steel. “I don’t know what I would have done if something happened to you.” He rested his chin on top of her head. She felt the locket press into her chest as he hugged her tightly. “I don’t have much family left.”

  Your only family. Rebecca closed her eyes and squeezed her guardian back. These moments were rare.

  TWENTY TWO

  They were on the road within minutes. As she glanced at her travel companions, Rebecca gripped the straps of her pack to prevent her fingers from shaking. They all seemed to take turns watching behind them or watching her. Odie followed behind with an enormous pack, while the horse carried a few bedrolls and waterskins. Rina trotted behind. The Lieutenant led them across country toward the main road. Rebecca was placed tightly between the Lieutenant and Denny, with Benjamin filling the gap between Denny and Odie.

  Benjamin continually scanned the horizon, scowling. He probably wasn’t happy about heading to the castle, either. At least one other person shared Rebecca's reticence on this journey. Denny would occasionally rest a hand on her pack, as if he needed to reassure himself that she was still safe.

  “I’m fine.” Rebecca smiled at him and then glanced at Benjamin. He was kicking a shrub, his eyes never leaving the area between them and the road. Denny scowled and stepped back.

  What did Denny have against Benjamin, she wondered, besides the fact that he was really annoying?

  She turned back to face the Lieutenant. He scanned ahead for potential danger as well. The knot of his eye patch stared at her. The shrubs and dead grass pulled at her skirt as they walked toward the Sunrise Mountains, which they would have to pass to get to the castle perched on the other side. She ran her fingers over the dipping heads of the yellow grass. Grasshoppers chirped around her. On the other side, in the east, the mountains were named the Sunset Mountains and the world was green. Trees and rocks sprouted from the ground. Green fields rolled out, full of crops and sheep—at least where the Lieutenant’s estate was, if she remembered correctly.

  The Lieutenant turned and lifted his eyebrows as if to ask if she was okay. She smiled and nodded back, shoving aside the image of the assassin’s dark eyes bulging in surprise. She gripped at the hilt of the knife Benjamin had returned to her. You’ve baptized it. It’s yours now. He’d barely glanced at her as he handed it back.

  The Lieutenant turned his head at the sound of hoofbeats, and Denny pulled Rebecca to the ground. Only Odie with his horse and goat were left standing. A dust cloud marked the road’s location, but it wasn’t close enough to see the rider.

  The Lieutenant pressed his finger unnecessarily against his lips. She had no desire to make a noise, even with Denny painfully squeezing her arms. She wiggled them a little, and Denny eased his grip. They all watched the dust cloud as it faded into the distance. They listened to the silence on the road for about ten seconds before the Lieutenant gestured them to move quickly. They dropped their single-file formation and clumped together around her. Benjamin breathed heavily on the other side of Rebecca. She glanced up at his overheated cheeks. He struggled but stayed even with her, and just like Denny, he tried to shield her from view.

  Rebecca spotted a billowing cloud of dust building on the road. Her gasp alerted Odie, who in two strides scooped up Rina and Rebecca and climbed onto the back of the horse. Rebecca found her arms full of protesting goat as Odie slid behind her and dug his heels into the horse’s flank. They rushed so fast past the Lieutenant and the road that Rebecca could barely breathe. She was thankful she hadn’t dropped Rina; she didn’t want to know how Odie would handle losing his best friend. She squeezed the flailing goat to her chest and closed her eyes just as they hit an overgrown path. Odie pressed her head down.

  The horse slowed, and she opened her eyes to see a worn-down hovel. A broken shutter dangled from the front window. A gate lay broken beside a tangled fence. An empty woodshed leaned sharply to one side. Odie slipped off and reached for Rina, who lectured Odie after he set her on the ground. Rebecca swung over the saddle and slid to the ground. Her knees buckled, and Odie reached out to catch her. His ears burned red as he caught her and set her back on her feet. He stepped back and averted his gaze to the front door.

  This was a safe house she’d never actually seen. The Lieutenant would point out its location regularly as they passed it, but he had always refused to go anywhere near it. He wanted to keep it safe.

  Hopefully it’s livable, she thought. Oh, well. It’ll just be for a day or two.

  Odie fumbled around the doorframe until he found an oversized key and unlocked the front door.

  It was dusty but neatly arranged. A few dishes were on the counter, as if someone had just left with all the intentions of coming back soon. Odie left, more comfortable with the horse outside than alone with Rebecca in the house. She toured the house in a single lap. It was one room, with the kitchen in the front and two beds tucked against the back wall, the blankets pulled tight and flat. A small window hung between the two beds, covered by a dark, moth-eaten curtain.

  She heard heavy running, and the horse whinnied outside. The Lieutenant collapsed against the doorframe, panting. Her guardian stepped inside and closed the door. He closed his eyes and heaved a sigh. “There’s something I need to tell you.”

  Rebecca pulled open a stiff curtain to let light into the room. The Lieutenant paced while wringing his hands. She sat down to prepare for the bad news.

  TWENTY THREE

  The boys pressed themselves flat against the rough ground and stared at each other as the storm of hooves passed by on the road. The Lieutenant had chased after Rebecca and Odie before the riders appeared on the road, stranding them on this side alone.

  As the rumble faded down the road, Benjamin lifted his head, only the trailing dust visible. He laid his head down and began to breathe again. Denny rolled over onto his back, resting next to his heavy pack, and forced a short laugh.

  “Any chance we’re overreacting?” Denny flung an arm over his eyes and peeked out at Benjamin.

  Benjamin raised his head, shook it, and then let his head fall back down.

  “I didn’t think so.” He dropped his arm back to his side and stared up at the cloudless sky for a moment before suggesting they catch up.

  “You know where they went?” Benjamin asked, pushing himself up halfway. Denny pulled him up the rest of the way and tugged his huge pack back on.

  “That way, I think.” Denny pointed past the bushes the Lieutenant had disappeared into. He looked antsy to catch up. “There’s a place out here that the Lieutenant pointed out to me a few times. That’s got to be it.”

  Denny pulled Benjamin across the road, forcing him to run faster than he want
ed. Denny kept assuring him that they were close, but Benjamin wasn’t sure he believed him. Just a little ways up the road, he recalled, was where he had met the Lieutenant. There was nothing else in the area for leagues.

  As they stumbled through tangles, Benjamin paused to scan the path. This looked very familiar. He shoved his pack into Denny’s arms and sauntered off alone. Barbs pulled on his jacket and tore at his hands and face. He punched through to a clearing. A broken shutter hung loose from a grimy window. Rina was tied up to a broken gate in front of his door. Shock slapped him hard; all he could feel was silence, and it stung.

  Denny’s lips moved, as if he were speaking. Silence wrapped around Benjamin tighter, suffocating him. He heard nothing as he ran, the ground swaying under him. His cheeks burned as he lurched for the door, ready to demand explanations. There would be no wiggling out this time.

  But as he opened the door, he merely slumped to the wall, his mouth gaping open like a fish. Rebecca sat at his table talking to the Lieutenant. The confusion on her face must have matched his.

  She stood up. His knife was belted around her hip. A scrape grazed her cheek. He blinked. The Lieutenant faced Rebecca, his back rigid.

  “Look at me!” Benjamin closed his mind against the memories of this place, his sanctuary. The place he used to share with his mother. “You know where I live? How do you know where I live?”

  He had nowhere else to go now. The Lieutenant turned stiffly. His eye met Benjamin’s angry gaze. There was something written in the Lieutenant’s expression that Benjamin couldn't read. His legs collapsed, and the room dimmed as his head hit the floor.

  TWENTY FOUR

  “I think I would like to hear some of these explanations myself,” Rebecca said, tapping her foot.

  “When you live with deadly secrets, they become your lifeline. Holding on to them is what keeps you alive,” the Lieutenant said, shaking his head. “It’s not an easy thing to just let go.”

  Benjamin lay on the hard floor, blinking. All was dark and he couldn’t move. He felt as if he’d been wrung out. All that exertion. Running, running, running—that’s all he could remember. Where had he been running to? Wait! I ran home! The very hideout he grew up in, his home. The one he sat alone in during every school break, thinking about how happy his mother would be to see him in the Villains’ Academy. It was her dying wish.

  He came to his body again and bolted upward. Everything in his vision went purple and black. He fell back and would have collided with the floor again, but a large, warm hand caught his head and laid him down. “Shh.”

  Odie knelt over him, his eyebrows squishing together over his brown eyes. Denny stood behind him, flexing his jaws. Benjamin took an internal inventory. Had he been seriously hurt? He had some scrapes that burned. He cautiously moved his legs and arms, and then he slowly sat up with Odie’s help. His head swam a little, but it soon cleared. The Lieutenant sat on his mother’s bed, scrubbing his face with his dirty hands.

  Benjamin didn’t have the strength for shouting, so he took a calming breath of restraint and looked the Lieutenant in the eye. The old man tugged at his eye patch and glanced away.

  “I was wondering how everyone knows where my secret hideout is? Pretty sure no one else has ever been here but me and my mother.”

  Odie helped him stand, with a hand on Benjamin’s back for support. The whole room waited for the Lieutenant’s answer, but he merely stared silently at Benjamin, pressing his lips together until they turned white. He stared long enough to make Benjamin squirm. Rebecca threw her hands into the air and then focused a cross look at the side of the Lieutenant’s head. “And?”

  The Lieutenant unlocked his gaze with Benjamin and looked almost nauseous as he met Rebecca’s eyes.

  “And—” His voice caught in his throat. “It was mine first. I gave it to your mother.”

  “You knew my mother?”

  “Ursula? Yes, I knew her.”

  A catch in the old man’s voice ripped at a scar deep in Benjamin’s chest. He blinked before tears could pool in his eyes.

  “She’s dead.”

  “Yes, I heard.”

  The old man closed his eye and brushed his silver-laced hair from his face, pain rippling across it. He must have been thinking about Benjamin’s mother. Benjamin had many memories of his mother that made him look like that too.

  She had been so focused on making him into the image of his father, it had left little room for much else in their relationship. As he got older, there was less and less room for motherly affection. He wondered if she had always been that way.

  “I don’t remember you. She never let people come here.”

  “No, she didn’t want to see me anymore.”

  “Oh.” Benjamin’s voice sounded small and far away. He stepped back into Odie, who steadied him.

  “I assumed Ursula had abandoned it until I saw you on the road.”

  The Lieutenant peered cautiously at him, perhaps gauging how much he actually had to tell. So there was more? Did Benjamin really want to hear all of it? Panic welled up in him. He swallowed it whole. It scratched and scraped all the way down.

  “Have I seen you before?”

  The Lieutenant’s face tightened.

  “You were at my graduation, weren’t you?” A light bloomed in Benjamin’s head.

  “Yes.”

  He saw the grisly gray hair (a wig?) under a heavy hood, the sparkle in the shadows of the hood where his patch would have been.

  “What is going on, Lieutenant?” Denny burst out. Emotion ripped through his voice, his hair pressed flat against his head with sweat and nervous hands.

  Did Denny already know? Did everyone see but him?

  “I was just surveying the graduation to see if Shreb had any intentions of recruiting. More work for the king.”

  Denny breathed heavily. He unclenched his fists and rubbed them on his pant legs. He glowered at his brother, who still held Benjamin up.

  “I recognized your name on the program. But when I saw you, I knew who you were. You have her dark hair and fine features.”

  Denny began pacing the room. Odie’s grip tightened on Benjamin’s shoulders. This man had been like their father. Did the truth coming forward affect them all?

  The tension pressed into Benjamin’s chest, threatening to crush it. The old man licked his lips and looked away. He studied the shadow of the broken shutter against the filthy window. Benjamin’s mind shut down. The room was stale. When had he last opened a window? Years. He couldn’t breathe in this tomb. This place where his mother had built a relic to a past she had lost. It was sacrilege, wasn’t it? They had desecrated a holy site devoted to Benjamin’s father, Black-Eyed Barnaby.

  “Did you know my f—” but the words clung in his throat. He didn’t want to know about his father. He wiped his sweaty palms on his sleeves. “How…how did you know my mother?”

  “We met not long after I entered the king’s service. My first friend in my new life.” He looked down at his boots caked with dust. “She helped me find a job with the archvillain at the time.”

  The words hit Benjamin like cold water thrown in his face. “You worked for Shreb, the first one?”

  Benjamin could feel the information drip down him and puddle around his toes. He must have known his father as well. What was this man afraid to say? The history books were so vague about what happened to Black-Eyed Barnaby, but his mother was certain he was dead. She saw it happen, she said, but not how.

  The Lieutenant met his gaze and nodded.

  “My father worked for him, too.”

  “Black-Eyed Barnaby.”

  Benjamin dumbly nodded in response. There was a terrible intake of collective breath around him as the final piece slipped into place for Rebecca, Denny, and Odie. Benjamin scanned the room, but all eyes were turned to the Lieutenant. Benjamin’s heart beat against his chest. He rubbed his cold fingers together.

  “Y-” Benjamin choked, his mouth too dry for speech. Hot t
ears stung his eyes. “My mother used to tell me stories about him. He didn’t sound like a real person.” Tears scalded his cheeks. He looked down at his hands. His fingernails were rimmed in dirt. He flipped a hangnail on his thumb back and forth.

  The old man peeked up at him and then closed his eyes. He took a deep breath and spoke, a quiver in his voice. “That’s probably because he wasn’t. Not really.”

  “I don’t understand.” Benjamin wedged his eyebrows together. “All the stories? You said you worked with him?”

  “The history books are right, mostly.” The old man shrugged as he scrubbed the back of his neck. “It’s just that he didn’t…he wasn’t…he was one of my lies.”

  The Lieutenant’s one pale-brown eye watched Benjamin closely. He bit the inside of his mouth for a moment and then rubbed his hands together.

  “The name I worked under was Barnabus Black. I’m not sure who came up with that other name.”

  A tear fell from the Lieutenant’s face as he lowered his eye. Benjamin heard it hit the floor. The words rolled over him and settled in the cold puddle of dread at his feet. He didn’t understand. Benjamin could not speak, could not breathe, could not move. There was no one in the room with him. He stood alone in his empty house. Helpless. Then the words trickled into his mind, drowning him.

  “When the first Shreb died, my mission ended. I had to return to the king. I could finally tell your mother the truth. I thought Ursula would understand. Somehow she would understand. I thought she loved me.” The old man’s breath trembled in his chest. He clenched his hands together to steady them, unable to meet Benjamin’s horrified gaze. “She wouldn’t forgive me. I begged. I told her I would wait for her. I would give her time. Anything, anything she wanted. I had estates and wealth.” He closed his eyes against the memory. “Traitor. That was her answer. I never saw her again.”